Past, Present Or Future?
by Hobbit985
Summary: Ianto is feeling a little left out and wants Jack to decide. Him or his memories? Ianto cannot live with Jack, knowing Jack can't let go of the past, but can Jack really let go in order to stop himself losing another lover?
1. Chapter 1

Ianto had always thought of himself as a spare part at Torchwood three. He had only been transferred because Torchwood one had been destroyed and his coffee blend had thrilled everyone at Torchwood three. He always got the feeling that he was never considered a proper member. He was just the guy who cleaned up afterwards and made the coffee. Always seen but never heard.

Then Gwen had joined Torchwood and after the Lisa incident she had included him more as a friend. Jack had started giving him other more important jobs around the place and Tosh and Owen started having proper conversations rather than just mumbling thanks when he bought out their coffee.

But just recently Ianto had once again began to feel left out. He could understand that Gwen and Owen were having a bit of trouble with their affair and Tosh was feeling the consequences of hearing everyone's thoughts, but he never realised that Jack would start to ignore him as well. After the Suzie incident Ianto thought things might finally start to return to normal between him and Jack. As much as he had never thought about his boss in that way, Ianto missed the constant sexual harassment when it stopped.

So Ianto had even gone as far as to say sorry without using the actual words and they had… well they had certainly become more than friends that night. But since then Ianto had once more been shoved away from the action, discarded in a corner. Jack had practically ignored him during the investigation into Eugene's death and when Diane, Emma and John had turned up Jack had been so glad that he had someone who understood what it felt like to be out of your time that he didn't even say thanks when Ianto handed him his coat to go after John.

Jack had been even worse when he explained where he'd found Ianto's car. Ianto could bear the fact that John had used it to kill himself, could even bear the fact that Jack had stood by and watched, doing nothing to stop it, despite knowing there was nothing after death, but Ianto couldn't understand why Jack was acting like he'd lost his best friend.

Ianto knew there were things in Jack's past that he couldn't explain, that Ianto wouldn't' understand even if Jack did explain, but he was always willing to listen. So when Jack didn't tell him anything Ianto asked. This only made Jack mad and Ianto decided that he was better off out of it. Obviously he and Jack were never going to have the same relationship they once had.

Jack had come to him a few days later, in a much better mood and certainly willing to be more intimate with Ianto, but the Welshman had had enough.

"I could send the others home you know," Jack said from the kitchen doorway as he watched Ianto wash up the mugs.

"You could," Ianto agreed through gritted teeth. "But it'll only mean the admin takes longer to finish."

Jack frowned slightly stepping into the room.

"Ianto are you ok?" He asked, leaning on the counter top to look at the other man.

"I'm fine, _sir_," Ianto said, putting emphasis on the word 'sir'. He hadn't called Jack by anything but his first name since the Suzie incident and that night, all those weeks ago.

"Am I missing something here?" Jack raised one eyebrow.

"Nope," Ianto replied, drying his hand on the tea towel and folding it neatly before putting it on the counter. He made to head for the door, but Jack caught his wrist.

"Ianto, what's wrong?" Jack asked. Ianto turned back, sighing.

"I'm fed of being used when you feel like it," Ianto said. "If you want to be with me, then stop sending mixed messages and disappearing off with strange men!"

In any other circumstances Jack might've found Ianto's choice of words comical, but the serious look on the Welshman's face told Jack that this was not a good time to laugh.

"I'm sorry, I've just been going through a tough time," Jack tried to explain.

"Yeah and so have the rest of us!" Ianto shot back. "You can't keep doing this to me. I want to be with you, but I can't stand by as a spare part waiting, hoping that maybe tonight will be the night you want to spend time with me."

Jack was slightly shocked by the hurt tone Ianto's words came out in. He looked sadly at Ianto for a moment.

"Sorry," he said finally. "I really am."

"I know," Ianto replied, as Jack released his grip on Ianto's wrist. "I just… I can't do this."

He gestured helplessly at nothing in particular.

"You might've been with people before who can put up with only the occasional moment where they finally get you to themselves, but I can't," Ianto ran a hand through his hair. "You've got to choose Jack. Me or your memories."

Jack stood there simply staring at Ianto. There silence between them seemed louder than if a thousand people were screaming. But what Ianto had said was totally true, he couldn't be kept hanging, it wasn't fair on either of them.

Ianto left then. It was evident that Jack needed time to think things over, after all Ianto was asking him to give up a lot.

As he walked the cold streets home, he wondered if he'd done the right thing. For starters he was still confused about himself. Lisa had been dead less than three months and he'd already fallen for someone else. And that someone else was not only a man but also his boss.

Ianto defiantly needed to think about things as well. He knew that being bisexual was practically a requirement when working for Torchwood, but he'd never thought of himself as anything but straight. Mostly because he'd never had feelings for a man before. Which made him wonder if he really did like Jack or if he was just convincing himself he did because he needed someone else who understood the pain of watching a loved one die?

Ianto's head hurt badly by the time he got back to his flat. It was way too big now that he had no one to share it with. He went straight to bed, but lay for a long time staring at the ceiling hoping that Jack was ok.

Jack had sent the others home early after Ianto had left. They had questioned Jack about Ianto's apparent hurry to get away from Torchwood, but he refused to tell them anything.

He retreated to his back room and sat on the bed for a long time contemplating everything Ianto had said. He so desperately didn't want to lose another potential partner, but how could he let go of the past?


	2. Chapter 2

Ianto didn't sleep well that night. In fact he kept waking so often that in the end he got up and made himself a cup of coffee, sitting down in a chair and looking out over the bay.

He was contemplating going back to the Hub. After all he'd given Jack time to think and no one else would be there, so it would be the perfect time to confront him. Making his mind up, Ianto set the empty cup of coffee down in his kitchen and went to get dressed. He had to wash the cup before he left (hey, everyone knew that Ianto was just a little OCD when it came to cleaning) but he was out of the flat less than twenty minutes later.

He drove slowly despite the fact there was no traffic on the roads. When he got to the Hub he walked as slowly as he dared. He knew that Jack was probably watching the CCTV and Ianto didn't want to look like he was dreading the meeting.

Opening the door to the main entrance of the Hub Ianto slipped inside. Jack was waiting, stood in the middle of the room. His eyes locked with Ianto's and for a moment neither of them could move.

Ianto was the first one to break the spell. He walked towards Jack and stopped right in front of him.

"I couldn't sleep," he said by way of explanation as to his very early arrival.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," Jack admitted, smiling slightly. "I've been thinking about what you said-"

"Jack," Ianto cut across him. "I was being selfish earlier… I can't ask you to let go of every memory you have."

"No, but you were right," Jack continued. "It's not fair to just leave you hanging. So… I want to know if you'll still consider being with me?"

Ianto smiled slightly, stepping forward carefully.

"You'll stop ignoring me?" He asked.

"Yes," Jack nodded, stepping forward himself.

"And you'll stop going off with strange men?" Ianto's lips were barely an inch from Jack's now, his arms snaking round Jack's waist.

"Strange men yes," Jack nodded slightly. "What about men I know very well?"

"As long as that's me and not Owen then yes that's fine," Ianto smiled, pressing his lips to Jack's.

Jack bought a hand up to cup Ianto's cheek, his other arm pulling the Welshman close. The pair stood there seemingly frozen for a long time. When they finally broke apart they remained in the middle of the Hub, foreheads resting against each other.

"Ianto, I…" Jack began but the Hub door started to slide open and Ianto stepped away slightly, turning to look and see who was at the Hub so early.

Ianto slipped his hand into Jack's just as Toshiko bustled in looking worried. She didn't even notice Jack and Ianto as she sat down at her desk and began looking through some files on her computer.

"Something wrong, Tosh?" Jack asked glancing at Ianto who was avoiding eye contact lest he turn a brighter shade of red than he already was.

"No, not really," Tosh said, groaning as she opened something and typed furiously at her computer.

"Are you sure?" Jack wandered towards Tosh's desk, pulling Ianto with him.

"Yeah, it's nothing," Tosh said running a hand through her hair. "But-"

"Ah, I knew that 'but' was coming," Jack said smiling slightly.

"Yeah, I think we've got a situation on our hands is the thing," Tosh shot an apologetic look at Jack. "There's a space ship that's crashed in town. We've gotta take care of it."

"No, now you see," Jack folded his arms. "Crashed space ship is standard procedure. For you to look worried there's something else involved."

"Yeah," Tosh nodded looking up. "Space ship crashed and according to this police file, we've already picked it up."

Jack frowned.

"Ooh, we've got ourselves a group of impostors," He looked over the police file and grinned. "Haven't dealt with anything like this in a long time; Ianto, fetch the SUV."

"Whoa," Tosh stared at Jack. "We can't go storming off, we haven't collected the appropriate information, Gwen and Owen aren't here and we don't even know for certain this is genuine. We've had hoaxes before."

"Alright, alright," Jack held up his hands. "You've got twenty minutes to find everything and make all the arrangements. We'll pick Gwen and Owen up on the way."

Tosh sighed and set about finding the files they'd need. Meanwhile Jack dragged Ianto to the kitchen.

"Any chance you can make a couple of flasks of coffee?" Jack asked. "Because Gwen and Owen are going to take a bit of bribing."

"Yes, sir," Ianto said smiling slightly.

Twenty minutes later all five members of the Torchwood team were in the SUV, speeding towards the location of the spaceship crash. Predictably, Owen was very annoyed at being woken at four in the morning and Gwen was especially quiet.

None of the others seemed to notice the sudden closeness between Jack and Ianto, but then at four in the morning no one was particularly observant. As they parked up the SUV and jumped out, Owen began to complain. After all they'd come to take readings from an empty field.

"Couldn't we have skipped this part and gone straight to find out where our doubles have gone?" Owen asked rubbing his hands together and watching his breath on the cold air. "They left that forwarding address with the police for a reason."

"Yeah, so that we'd go to that abandoned warehouse and walk straight into a trap," Jack pointed out.

"Jack!" Tosh called before Owen could continue the argument. "Owen might, for once in his life, be right. I've got readings for a Dalco ship."

"What's a Dalco ship?" Gwen asked frowning as she wandered over with the small plastic bag she'd collected small pieces of unidentifiable material in.

"Its ship that belongs to the Dalco species," Owen said rolling his eyes.

"Well I gathered that much," Gwen shot back. "I mean what kind of aliens are they?"

"A bit like Weevils, only a bit smarter," Ianto said, frowning slightly at the scanner in his hand. "But these readings are a bit odd."

"Odd how?" Jack asked glancing at Ianto's scanner.

"They're perfect, a bit too perfect," Ianto replied.

"Artificial?" Jack suggested. Ianto nodded. "Trap?"

"I suspect so," Ianto nodded.

"Right, back in the SUV," Jack decided.

"Why do you never listen to me?" Owen asked, talking to himself more than anyone else. "Ianto tells you to head straight to the ware house and you can't get their quick enough…"

Gwen shoved Owen in the small of the back and caused him to stumble as he climbed into the SUV. He glared at her, but she just gave him a withering look.

Jack didn't drive off straight away. He sat thinking, Ianto watching him from the passenger seat.

"Problem?" He asked quietly.

"Nope," he shook his head starting the engine. "But you lot are staying in the car."

He knew it was a mistake telling them before he got there. Jack had to spend the entire journey enduring a tirade of protests the whole way to the warehouse. The thing was he could risk his own life (or well… what little actual life he had) but the others were not about to walk into a trap were anything could happen. He could handle this one situation himself.

When they arrived at the ware house, Jack found the others weren't going to give up as easily as he had hoped. They followed him out of the car and stuck to him like glue.

"Look, it's your safety I'm thinking about," Jack said.

"And what about yours?" Asked Tosh.

Jack sighed, rolling his eyes and caught the 'well you picked this team' look off Ianto who was stood next to the SUV still.

"Fine, you can come, but the first sign of trouble you leave, got it?" Jack said and watched the team carefully as they nodded. "And someone needs to stay with the SUV."

"I'll stay," Ianto offered.

"Right, come on then," Jack said stuffing his hands in his pockets.

As they neared the warehouse he slowed down and pulled out a gun. He turned to look at the others and when they were all armed, he slowly pushed open the door. They all crept inside, keeping as quiet as possible.

Jack and Tosh went one way, Gwen and Owen went the other and they carefully checked all the adjoining rooms to the main area of the warehouse. It appeared to be totally deserted and certainly showed no signs of hiding anything, alien or otherwise. Still you could never be too careful and they checked the whole place out before finally deciding to head back.

"Why on earth would they give the police this address when there isn't even a trap set for us?" Owen asked frowning as they stepped out into the cold morning air. It was starting to get light now and as Jack pulled the door to behind them he heard all three of his team member's gasp.

"I think we might just have answered that question," Tosh said quietly.

Frowning Jack turned round to find them looking at… nothing. Nothing. So why..? Then it struck Jack. No SUV and no Ianto.


	3. Chapter 3

Jack tried to contact Ianto via the Bluetooth headset he was wearing, but to no avail. None of the others could establish a link either and after scouting the area and finding no clues as to Ianto's kidnappers, they decided to head back towards the Hub.

When they got there, there was no sign that anyone had used Ianto to get inside, or even a message from the captors. This worried Jack more than it did the others. What if no one had taken Ianto? What if Ianto had taken the SUV himself? But why?

"Tosh, I want CCTV feeds of the SUV in the time leading up to its disappearance and track the route it took when it was stolen," Jack said briskly. He decided not to mention the fact that Ianto may have been the one to take the Torchwood car.

"Already on it," Tosh replied, typing away at her computer.

"Owen, Gwen," Jack gestured for them to follow him. "With me."

He led them towards the armoury and grabbed a few hand guns, passing them to the other two.

"It's most likely humans," Jack said. "So I recommend shooting to injure but not kill."

Gwen and Owen nodded glancing at each other. Both were wondering what kind of smart individuals were after Torchwood. If Jack noticed the look he didn't say anything. They headed back up to the main section of the Hub.

"Tosh, report," Jack called.

"No luck," Tosh said in a slightly hollow voice. "The CCTV was taken out about a minute after we went inside and the tracker device was deactivated."

Jack stared flabbergasted. They were defiantly dealing with professionals. Tosh stared back at him. No one had ever been able to deactivate the trackers before. Jack could see that Tosh's faith in her computer geniusesness was slipping.

"Right…" Jack had no idea what to do next. Only Ianto himself would've known how to deactivate the tracker, but that didn't necessarily mean he had taken the SUV himself.

"Maybe they'll contact us?" Gwen said, trying to reassure Jack, who judging by the look on his face, had no plan.

"Yeah," Jack swallowed. This had never happened before. The attacker always left clues.

So they sat in the Hub and waited. There was nothing else they could do. Jack continued to try and establish a connection over the Bluetooth headsets and Tosh began setting up missing person posters should the need for them arise.

They waited for hours. Jack and Tosh worked tirelessly the whole time and left Gwen and Owen feeling slightly left out.

Finally she could stand it no longer and grabbing her coat, Gwen headed for the door, shooting Owen a 'coming?' look as she passed. Owen stood up and followed her, completely unnoticed by Jack and Tosh.

Once outside Gwen pulled her coat on and turned to Owen who was checking he still had his gun holstered securely.

"Come on," she said. "We're no use sat in there. We're Ianto's friends, we've got to try and find him."

"Gwen, Cardiff is a big city to try and search for one man and an SUV," Owen pointed out. "He might not even be in Cardiff."

Gwen knew that Owen was right, but how could they just sit there doing nothing, going out of their minds with worry?

"Do you really want to go back in there?" Gwen asked. Owen glanced over his shoulder.

"No," he admitted. He sighed and held out a hand to Gwen, who took it. "Come on then."

He decided they might as well take the opportunity to talk even if they knew their search was going to be in vain. Owen still hadn't managed to find the words to tell Gwen about Diane, and somehow, Owen didn't want to have to think about her. It hurt too much.

Back inside the Hub, Jack frowned when he discovered Gwen and Owen had disappeared.

"Where have they wandered off to?" He asked Tosh.

"Just out," Tosh shrugged still working away at her computer. "CCTV shows they're just walking across the square."

"For once, I'd like to be bale to guarantee that my team would all stay in one place," Jack sighed shaking his head.

"They just want to seem useful," Tosh replied. She frowned at her screen. "Jack. You might want to see this. Someone's managed to hack into our message system."

Jack frowned slightly and wandered round Tosh's desk to read the message appearing on the screen.

Gwen and Owen wandered through town, hand in hand, not really sure where to look. They just kept their eyes peeled for any sign of the SUV or Ianto.

"I'm sorry," Owen said suddenly.

Gwen paused as they strolled through a park in the middle of Cardiff. She frowned at him for a moment.

"What for?" She asked.

"For us," Owen sighed. "I've destroyed whatever we had."

"No you haven't," Gwen replied. "We both knew what the limits of the relationship were and we both knew it wouldn't last forever."

"Yeah, but I cheated on you," Owen couldn't bring himself to look at Gwen, even when she continued walking, dragging him by the hand behind her.

"I know," she squeezed his hand gently. "And she was much better for you."

"I'm sorry," Owen said again. "I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand. I just…"

"Fell in love," Gwen looked back at him. "Don't worry about it Owen."

They looked at each other for a moment, understanding passing between the pair. Gwen smiled slightly then.

"Come on, let's see if we can find Ianto," she said gently.

Jack's concern deepened the further down the message he read.

"Tosh can you get any kind of information from this?" He asked.

"Trying," she said.

_Torchwood_

_We have your associate Ianto Jones. If you ever want to see him again shut your investigations down. Do not attempt to regroup. If you know what's good for you, you will never talk to each other again and forget everything you ever did. You have twenty four hours, or we kill the Welshman._

"I've got a track," Tosh said finally. "They're using a computer in Cardiff central library."

"Right," Jack nodded straightening up. "Get hold of Gwen and Owen. We're going to find Ianto."


	4. Chapter 4

Jack and Tosh picked Gwen and Owen up in Tosh's car on the way to the library. The pair of them were surprisingly quiet, but it went unnoticed by Jack, who was too busy worrying about Ianto.

By the time they reached the library Tosh was already trying to get hold of the CCTV footage to see if they could find out who had taken Ianto. Once again though the footage had been tampered with.

"I'll try and see if there's anyone we've annoyed that might have access to technology good enough to tamper with the cameras." Tosh muttered to herself. She found it unnerving and annoying when her tech failed to give her answers.

Gwen and Owen glanced at each other. There had been times in the past when Ianto had questioned his status in the team. Even they had to admit that sometimes Ianto was treated as nothing more than the coffee boy; so whoever had kidnapped Ianto must've been very smart to realise just what an impact it would have on the team.

They entered through the library doors quietly, weapons hidden so as not to draw attention to themselves and quickly did a sweep of the area. There were at least a hundred computers in the library and out of them at least fifty were occupied.

Jack stared at the computers trying to see if he recognised anyone. It was times like this that Jack realised how valuable Ianto's photographic memory was.

"Tosh can you track exactly which computer sent the message?" He said finally.

Tosh tapped away on her PDA trying to locate the source. After a few minutes of wandering up and down the isles she came to a stop in front of a computer that was no longer in use.

"This is the one," she said quietly. "And it's not been used for at least ten minutes."

"Right…" Jack ran a hand through his hair.

Gwen, Owen and Tosh looked at him, waiting for orders. Orders Jack knew he couldn't give them. Slowly, he slipped his hands into his pockets, still silent.

The team instantly recognised the defence barriers and knew that they were in trouble. The only other time Jack had not known what to do was when they'd finally got fed up of his secrecy and demanded to know exactly who he was.

Jack had tried to explain to them that it was long, complicated and they didn't need burdening with the details. They'd persisted and in the end he'd told them everything. Of course they'd all gone home angry, assuming he was lying. Only Ianto noticed the body language and realised he was telling the truth. Ianto had been the only one who had expressed any kind of care for Jack's past. And Jack had repaid Ianto by killing his girlfriend.

"Jack?" Gwen asked carefully, bringing Jack back from the deep recesses of his thoughts. "What do we do?"

Jack glanced at her and then at the others.

"Go home," he said finally. "Go home and forget you ever worked for Torchwood."

He turned away from them and began walking out of the library. He could hear them following and paused in the doorway, turning to look at them again.

"Or better still, take some RetCon so you don't have to try to forget," Jack carried on walking and by the time the team managed to force their legs to follow, their captain was long gone.

Tosh gave Gwen a lift back to her flat and then headed towards Owen's. They'd remained silent throughout the entire car journey. As Tosh pulled up outside the block of flats where Owen lived however, he broke the silence.

"You don't think Jack's going to do anything stupid do you?" He asked quietly, not getting out the car. It was around midday and the sun was casting a warm glow over the whole city.

"I don't know," Tosh admitted. "He's blaming himself, obviously, but maybe he hopes that by disbanding Torchwood those people will bring back Ianto."

They sat in silence again for a few minutes.

"Do you want to come up to the flat?" Owen asked. Tosh considered for a moment.

"They said we shouldn't talk to each other," she pointed out.

"But if they know we're talking then they'll probably know what we're talking about," Owen countered. "We used to be friends Tosh. Best friends. If Torchwood is gone why can't we go back to the way things were?"

Tosh smiled slightly.

"Torchwood changed a lot of things," she said quietly. "Go on then."

"Nice one," Owen grinned as he and Tosh got out the car.

Gwen sat around, alone in the flat. Rhys was still at work and she didn't know what to do with herself. For the first time in several months, she had nothing to do.

She tried to keep herself busy, making something to eat, reading a book she'd bought ages ago, but something wasn't quite right. There was no alien threat, no chance of Torchwood ringing when she was in the middle of something. Her life, she realised, was unbelievably boring without Torchwood.

In the end Gwen had to go back out again. She spent the afternoon wandering round Cardiff, but was careful not to go near the bay. Not until they were sure that things were ok again. As she walked she thought over the situation. She knew how desperate Jack was to get Ianto back, but to simply give up without a fight? It wasn't like him.

She pulled her mobile out of her pocket and sat down on a bench in the park. She thumbed the buttons looking up all the speed dial numbers. She had all the Torchwood members on there. It would only take the push of a button to phone one of them.

Jack had gone back to the Hub. He'd had no choice; he had nowhere else to call home. He was looking at the message again, wondering if he could send one back, explaining that they could talk things over. But he knew it was a daft idea, same as he knew telling everyone to go home was a bad move. They'd all end up back together one way or another, and Jack suspected that whoever had Ianto wouldn't just willingly hand him over.

How had he got them into this mess? Jack sat at his desk, rubbing his face with his hands, contemplating just what he'd done wrong. More importantly he should be thinking about what he was going to do to get them out of this mess.

Sighing, he closed the e-mail on his computer screen down and was just about to turn it off when another message pinged up. Frowning slightly Jack opened it.

_Well done Jack Harkness. You have successfully fallen for our plan. Now that you are no longer together we intend to pick you off one by one and kill Torchwood once and for all. Except you of course. We know all about your immortality, so how will it feel to live forever with the blood of four people on your hands? Expect Ianto Jones to be sent through the post, piece by piece over the next few weeks._


	5. Chapter 5

Tosh and Owen were sat in Owen's flat, laughing as they remembered all the cringe worthy things they'd got up to together and university. Some of the parties Owen had been to would've made even Jack squirm.

Owen grinned, taking another gulp of the larger in his hand, watching Tosh giggle in the armchair she was sat in.

"What happened to us Tosh?" Owen asked after a moment's silence.

"What do you mean?" Tosh frowned slightly in confusion.

"We used to do this all the time, you know, just sit and talk," Owen sighed. "What changed us?"

"Torchwood," Tosh said grimly. "You were running from Megan… I was running from…"

"Your family?" Owen suggested lightly, not wanting to push his friend.

"Yeah," Tosh nodded. "Guess we were both idiots."

"Yeah," Owen agreed, sighing again.

"But we changed for the better as well," Tosh pointed out. Owen raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Well, we met Jack and Ianto and Suzie and Gwen."

"Yeah, let's see," Owen held up his hand counting them off. "Jack, the boss who'll shag anything, Ianto the tea-boy who hid his cyber girlfriend in the basement, Suzie the psycho killer and Gwen the copper who released a sex pheromone gas on Cardiff on her first day of work killing thirty men. I can see why that's the plus side."

"Hey, they're not all that bad!" Tosh protested. "And you can talk; you slept with three of them."

Owen stared for a moment trying to work out what Tosh was on about.

"Suzie, Gwen…" he paused waiting for Tosh to fill in the third person.

"Oh my god you don't remember!" She grinned, giggling again.

"Don't remember what?" Owen asked slightly worried now.

"You know the Christmas party a few years ago, not long after Suzie joined?" Tosh managed to ask

"Yeah," Owen nodded still looking worried and confused.

"You know how in the morning everyone woke up in the same bed, practically naked?" Tosh continued.

"Yeah," Owen said not sure he liked where this story was going.

"Well, only two people actually had sex," Tosh bit her lip. "You and Jack."

Owen groaned and covered his eyes with his hand.

"How do I not remember that?" He asked.

"Umm, because you and Jack were both so drunk that it was over in less than a minute?" Tosh laughed.

"You what?" Owen looked up. "You were timing?"

"Yup," she nodded. Owen opened his mouth to talk, but just then the phone went.

Jack sprang into action the minute he'd received the message. He launched himself towards the nearest phone, picked it up and began dialling. But the only thing he managed to get hold off was the receiver. The line was dead; evidently the people who had Ianto had stopped all forms of communication from the Hub.

Grabbing his greatcoat he headed for the door, intending to find the other members of Torchwood. When he reached the door however he found it stuck fast. Jack swore loudly and kicked the door, resulting in hurting his toe. The Hub was in lockdown.

Jack was not one to panic, but with his team, and what he considered his friends in danger; he knew he had to get out quickly and save them. He pulled out his mobile. No signal, but at least it was working. Time to take a leaf out of Ianto's book. His heart ached as he thought of what was happening to his lover.

He pulled some wires towards him and began to set about boosting the signal and redirecting it through the water tower.

"Come on," Jack muttered to himself. "Please work…"

He got hold of a signal and punched the air in victory.

"Yes!" He cried, dialling quickly. "Now, come on, pick up, pick up."

Owen picked up the phone shooting Tosh a glare to get her to stop laughing.

"Hello?" He asked.

"Hi, Owen," Gwen's voice floated down the phone.

"Alright, Gwen," Owen sat up a little. "Something up?"

"No, just… bored…" Owen could almost hear Gwen shrug. "Up to much?"

"No, Tosh is here though," Owen said trying to sound offhand.

"Oh right," Gwen sounded left out. "Didn't those people say that we shouldn't talk to each other?"

"Yeah but Tosh was my friend before anyway," Owen replied. "Besides what are you phoning for if you're worried about that?"

"Just one last goodbye chat," Gwen said sadly.

Jack growled as he kept getting the same tone telling him that Gwen was busy. He hung up and tried Owen, whose mobile was turned off. Sighing he tried Tosh and finally managed to get through.

"Tosh, you are in danger," Jack blurted quickly. "Find Gwen and Owen and get yourselves back to the Hub. And I need the lockdown codes."

Tosh glanced over at Owen and nodded even though Jack couldn't see her, as he explained everything. She quickly muttered a number to Jack and hung up.

"Owen, tell Gwen we're going to pick her up," Tosh said.

"What?" Owen frowned. "Why?"

"Because someone is trying to kill us," Tosh replied.


	6. Chapter 6

_AN: Warning, this chapter contains severe Ianto bashing, mentions of rape and mentions of torture. You have been warned._

Ianto was vaguely aware of a numb feeling all over. Like a cold chill had spread right through him. He groaned and tried to move. The last time he'd felt like this he'd just be thrown across the Hub by Lisa. As this thought crossed his mind he suddenly remembered Torchwood, Weevils, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, Jack…

He sat bolt upright, opening his eyes. This didn't really help as he was in complete darkness. He checked himself over, and though he ached badly, he seemed to be in one piece. His hands were bound and a gag was cutting into his mouth, preventing him from making much noise.

He carefully stood up and began to feel his way around. He couldn't tell exactly how big the room he was in was, but it was roughly, forty steps in each direction. He'd passed two doors, on different walls. Both had been locked, but then Ianto hadn't expected any less. After all, he was a prisoner.

He sat down again finally, leaning back against one of the walls. There was nothing he could do until someone came to check on him and then maybe he'd be able to figure some things out.

One of the doors on the wall opposite him creaked open suddenly, as if someone had read his mind. Ianto covered his eyes from the bright light and heard the door shut again. Someone moved across the room and flicked on a light. This was a little dimmer and Ianto was able to look up.

He saw a tall thin man standing watching him. The man had long wavy brown hair that fell about his eyes. He was carrying a very interesting looking box, but Ianto suspected its contents weren't things he wanted to see.

Ianto glanced away from the mans cold grey eyes and looking down at his own hands. They were covered in blood, but it was hard to tell if they were from cuts on his hands, or somewhere else.

The man set the box on the floor, opening it and taking something out which he slipped into his pocket. He straightened up and headed towards Ianto. Ianto didn't know what the man was going to do, but he didn't want to find out either.

Ianto didn't know how long the man had stayed. He knew it had been a long time though. After a while he'd just shut his mind off, unable to cope with the situation any longer.

His body ached worse than before, but Ianto didn't want to think about it, or what had caused it. He knew he was bleeding from several different places, but somehow it made him feel better to feel the slow trickle along his skin. It gave him something to think about if nothing else.

His shirt was torn and he didn't know where his trousers or boxers were. The brown haired man had thrown them across the room somewhere before… before.

Ianto coughed and groaned as a shooting pain started up across his chest. He rolled onto his side, clutching his stomach with his bound hands, wishing the pain would stop, wishing the memories would fade, wishing someone would find him, wishing Jack would take him home.

Ianto sobbed as he thought about what Jack had said to him only hours ago. They could be happily pottering about the Hub right now, not talking, but content to know the other was there if they cared to go and find them. They could be in bed talking about any number of things, or doing those any number of things and not talking.

He could've been watching Jack write his latest report, or making him coffee, or listening to Jack tell one of his wild tales that you were never quite sure whether to believe or not.

Ianto felt tears roll down his cheek. He didn't know what these people wanted with him, or whether they were even going to let him live or not. But he did know that they were intent on torturing him mentally and physically before they did. And he wasn't sure if he'd be able to cope with much more.

The pain was worse now. Three other men had come and gone, and though they'd not done exactly the same things, what they had done had still been enough to send Ianto off the edge. He knew this was going to be his life now. Some kind of frustration toy that would be kept for these peoples own pleasure and nothing more. He'd never feel love again, never love himself again. All he'd know is pain and fear.

He kicked himself mentally then. He needed to get a grip. He'd been in far worse than this before and managed to escape. Well technically Jack had saved him, but it was still the same. Jack would save him this time and he'd be safe again. It was only a matter of time. They would already know he was missing. It wouldn't take them long to find him.

The doubt set in then. He'd been gone hours. At least twelve he would guess, though it might've been longer with the time he was unconscious. If Jack hadn't come to get him by now then something had gone wrong with the plan. There was another element he didn't know about. Something in the equation that changed something else with devastating consequences.

One of the doors opened and Ianto curled tighter into a ball. The light was flicked on again and the door closed. He looked up, praying that it wouldn't be another man come to have his share of Ianto. He sighed when he saw it was a girl carrying a tray of food. He had never been so relieved in his life.

The girl had long wavy brown hair and bright green eyes. She wandered towards Ianto and set the tray down on the floor sitting next to him. She reached out a hand and Ianto flinched away.

"I just…" the girl paused. "I just want to take your gag off."

Ianto relaxed slightly and the girl gently undid the gag throwing it to one side.

"My name's Bo, by the way," she said smiling slightly. She looked about fifteen and almost as scared as Ianto himself. "Are you ok? I know what they did to you. It's my dad and his mates; they've got a vendetta against Torchwood. I'm sorry you got dragged into this. They're animals the lot of them. I wouldn't be here only…"

The girl trailed off and Ianto knew immediately that she was much a prisoner as he was.

"They don't know I'm here and I'll get the shit beaten out of me if they find out, so don't mention it ok?" Bo said quietly. Ianto nodded and sat up gingerly.

"How long have I been here?" He asked croakily.

"I dunno," Bo shrugged. "I didn't know you were here until I heard my Dad talking about what he'd done. You're not the first he's abused. And you won't be the last either."

Ianto looked at the girl horror struck as he realised what she was saying. It was one thing for him, a twenty three year old man, but for a fifteen year old girl, with no chance of escape… This must be what hell felt like.

He reached out for some of the bread on the tray suddenly realising how hungry he was.

"Don't think about me though," Bo continued. "I've had to live with it my whole life, I've never known any different. They'll kill me one day anyway and then I'll be free."

Ianto looked at her sadly.

"We could help you," he said. "Torchwood. They'll come looking for me and they'll get me out, we could take you with us."

Bo smiled wryly.

"My Dad would still find me," she said. "He found you and caught you. If he caught me, he'd kill me."

"You are the first person in this bloody place to show me any kind of compassion," Ianto replied. "The least we could do is help you."

"I suppose I could…" she pondered. "I mean, if I stay he'll find out that I'm…"

She trailed off again one hand resting on her stomach. It didn't take Ianto long to put two and two together.

"You're pregnant," he said. Bo nodded sadly. "Is it..?"

Bo shook her head, laughing.

"No," she said. "My dad and his mates are way too careful. No, I was given to one of the other prisoners as punishment for getting the food order wrong from the Chinese place. They killed him the next day."

"Who was he?" Ianto asked curiously.

"Dunno," she shrugged. "A boy a little older than me. Just another part time shag for my Dad."

Ianto finished off the bread.

"We could get you out," he promised. "We could take you somewhere you could think about this without having to worry about anything else."

Bo sighed again.

"I better go before they decide to come back for round two," she said standing up and taking the empty tray with her. "I'm sorry you're here. Really sorry. I hope you get out and I hope you find someway to get over this."

She paused in the doorway, glancing back before leaving, flicking off the light switch as she went.

Ianto lay back down, wondering if he really had it bad, or whether he ought to feel lucky that he wasn't in the same situation as Bo.


	7. Chapter 7

Jack had typed in the lockdown codes and reopened the Hub. He raced down to the armoury and grabbed the nearest weapons, taking as many as he could carry, before hurtling back upstairs and into the spare car they had in case the SUV was… well taken.

He knew he didn't have long. Whoever was after Torchwood had a half hour head start on the rest of them. Praying that they hadn't killed Ianto, he set the car so that upcoming traffic lights would automatically set themselves to green.

Gwen put the phone down, shakily. Tosh had just informed her that she and Owen were coming to get her to head back to the Hub. Someone was intending to kill them all, so it was vital that they all met up. Gwen wondered how exactly that would make the situation better, but didn't question Jack's judgement.

She pushed her mobile into her pocket and sat on the edge of the sofa, hoping that Rhys didn't come home before her would-be killer, or worse, after her would-be killer had been.

Tosh and Owen checked the surrounding area on Tosh's PDA. There were a few life signs inside the houses and the block of flats they had just come out of, but no one 'hiding' anywhere.

Tosh handed the PDA to Owen and checked the car over before they got in.

"What were you doing?" Owen asked as he started the engine.

"Checking it hadn't been tampered with," Tosh replied. "Jack said to be overly cautious."

"Well if Jack said it, we'd better worry," Owen pulled out and began to drive carefully towards Gwen's.

Jack was tracking Tosh and Owen's progress on the computer programmed into the Torchwood car's dashboard. It was a handy little invention that Ianto and Tosh had been building together over the past few months. It was similar to the one in the SUV, but was designed for 'undercover' missions. Not that Torchwood did 'undercover' much.

Jack's heart ached again, not just for Ianto now, but the whole team. This was his fault. He'd been responsible for too many deaths; he wasn't going to have another four on his soul. He sped up and swerved round several cars, not caring that he might kill himself on the way to save his team.

Gwen heard a knock on the door and looked up sharply. Tosh and Owen said they'd ring when they were outside the flat. Keeping as quiet as she could, Gwen stood up and pressed herself flat against the wall beside the door to the hallway.

Peering round, she could see three figures at the door. She put a hand over her mouth, trying to silence her heaving breathing and fast beating heart, sure that someone must be able to hear them.

There was another knock, this time more frantic. What was she supposed to do? If they thought she was out hen they'd storm in. On the other hand if they'd been able to track their movement before, then they'd already know she was here.

Gwen looked round desperately for another way out. There was a fire escape over by the window on the other side of the lounge. She ran over and tried frantically to open the window. It had always been stiff and Gwen often made jokes with Rhys that, if there ever was a fire, it would be the death of them.

She managed to pull it up a little. The gap was too small for her to squeeze out, but she could get a shoulder under there and tried to lever it further. Just as the figures began to kick the door in.

Tosh and Owen pulled up outside the block of flats where Gwen lived and carefully, checking that no one was around, went up the stairs. They froze when they reached the top and found Gwen's door, bent in, and splintered where it had been kicked down.

They didn't have weapons on them, so they armed themselves, with strips of wood that had flown off the door. Walking slowly down the hallway and into the lounge the sight that greeted them was not a pleasant one.

The window was open, causing the curtains to fly out in the wind, blowing paper that was littered round the flat. The whole place had been trashed. It looked like nothing more than a simple burglary, but in the middle of the lounge area, whoever had been there had moved the sofa and table off the carpet and written a message. Using blood.

_We warned you didn't we? Now you must all pay the price. There is no escape, you will all die. We will destroy you, Torchwood._

"Is it Gwen's?" Tosh sounded muffled because she'd put a hand over her mouth.

Owen bent down and pulled a swab inside a tube, collecting some of the still wet blood.

"I dunno, I'll have to test it back at the Hub," he said, pocketing the sample.

Just as Owen straightened up, Jack came through the door, or what was left of it, and swore loudly when he saw the state of the flat.

"No sign of Gwen?" He asked the other two. They shook their heads. "Shit."

"We better clear this lot up, we don't want Rhys suspecting anything," Tosh pointed out.

"Right, operation cover up we'll have to do ourselves and make sure you get rid of that message," Jack nodded. "Tosh can you forge a note from Gwen saying that she's on a training camp or something and she'll be back soon?"

Tosh nodded and the three of them got to work on the flat.

The men hadn't returned to Ianto. He didn't know how long he'd been there. He was starting to go insane with worry and no concept of time. To keep himself busy, he'd pulled all his clothes on, though they were tattered a torn, and found the light switch, turning it on so he could look at the things in the room.

There wasn't much. Nothing he could use for a weapon or to help him escape anyway. A couple of crates sat in the corner and he managed to find a thick blanket that he pulled round himself, trying to keep warm.

He didn't hurt, but that was probably because he was so numb. He was covered in dried blood and some wounds were still wet. He huddled into a small bundle in one corner and sobbed, shaking and crying, wishing Jack would hurry up and get him out of this place.


	8. Chapter 8

_AN: For Farimirlover who has been illl. Hope this makes you feel better!_

The door to Ianto's room opened and Ianto shrank back, fearing the men might have finally returned. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was just Bo.

"I bought some more food," she said, heading over with a tray.

Ianto shuffled forward, a blanket still wrapped round him, trying to keep himself warm. He bit hungrily into the bread Bo had bought in for him.

"Listen, can I ask you something?" She said quietly after a moment.

"Yeah," Ianto nodded, pausing in his eating to look at her, listening intently.

"Well, ummm…" Bo lifted up her shabby and far too big top to reveal a very large pregnancy bump. "Do you know anything about babies? Only I haven't felt it kick for almost a week now."

Ianto stared for a moment. He hadn't realised just how far along Bo was. He set down the piece of bread he had been eating.

"I'm not a Doctor," he said. "I don't know anything about pregnancy. Only the odd thing that you should avoid, but I only know that because…"

Ianto paused. He only knew that because before Torchwood one had killed Lisa Hallet, the two of them had been discussing children when her sister got pregnant. Lisa came into her element, borrowing books from the library and giving her sister advice.

"How far gone are you?" Ianto asked carefully.

"Nearly full term I think…" Bo said. "I have no idea how the baby will be though. I haven't had any checkups and I'm not living in the best of conditions. Not that that will matter. Even if your friends agree to take me with them, my Dad'll find me and kill me."

Ianto didn't know what to say to convince her that Torchwood could keep her safe. So he just finished his bread.

Jack ran a hand through his hair, watching the clean up operation carefully. He was trying to map in his head how the attack must've happened. With the window open, Gwen must've tried to make some sort of escape.

Walking over to the window and sticking his head out, Jack looked around. There was no sign of Gwen down the fire escape. They must've caught her. Unless…

Jack climbed out the window and onto the metal grating below. He carefully studied it, and the window sill for any clues that might suggest Gwen had gotten away. There was a chance she had, Owen had tried ringing her mobile and had found it in the flat, so Gwen might've escaped and had no way of contacting them to let them know.

That was when he saw it. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a piece of material caught on part of the window sill. Carefully, he picked it up to examine it.

"Owen," Jack called through the window.

The medic appeared seemingly from nowhere looking at Jack expectantly.

"I found this, take it back to the Hub to check for Gwen's DNA," he said handing the piece of cloth over. "If we're very lucky, she might've found some way to escape."

Owen nodded, taking the torn material and putting it into a test tube before pocketing it. Tosh appeared by the window just as Jack was climbing back inside the flat.

"Clean ups finished and I've left the forged note on the fridge," she said, tapping away at her PDA with her stylus.

"Right," Jack nodded looking round. They'd done a good job. "Back to the Hub then. Let's just hope they haven't managed to kidnap another of the team."

The team, or what was left it anyway, made their way cautiously back to the Hub. They didn't encounter any threatening or suspicious persons on the way and thought maybe they had some time before the people who had kidnapped Ianto and threatened Gwen would strike again.

Course, they were being very hopeful. This hope was dashed the minute they pulled up at the Hub and got out to find Gwen tied up at the tourist entrance, surrounded by three men.

"Thought we told you to disband Torchwood?" The first man, tall and ruggedly handsome, said.

"Let Gwen go," Jack ordered as he stopped a few feet away from them, Owen on his right, Tosh on his left.

"Nah, we thought we'd have our fun," the second man grinned, showing very few teeth. He had an arm round Gwen, a knife to her throat. "Then we'll kill her and feed her to our dog."

Gwen whimpered through the gag that was almost choking her. She tried to struggle, but with her hands tied behind her back she was more likely to end up on the knife than free.

Her eyes pleaded with Jack to save her. He stood there, glancing around, sizing up the situation. It was three on three, but the men were big and burly. Jack was sure he could take on one, maybe two, but Tosh and Owen wouldn't be able to take down the men.

"Who are you?" Jack asked, trying to buy them time. Owen and Tosh might not have been strong enough to take the men on physically, but both were exceptionally smart and quick on their toes. If he could get the men talking, the other two would have time to come up with a plan.

"You should know Jack Harkness," the man with the knife to Gwen's throat said. "We're all in your little files if you look deep enough. Course, you don't look at them do you? They're just facts that get handed to Ianto Jones to archive."

Jack frowned slightly. Not only where these men starting to get on his nerves, after all, they had tied Gwen up, which was not nice, but now they were insulting his captain's duties.

"Well, I wouldn't be asking if I knew, so how about you fill me in?" Jack asked. Either side and a step behind him, Owen and Tosh were shooting each other looks, trying to construct a feasible plan, without talking or drawing the attention of the men away from Jack.

"You killed Suzie Costello," the biggest of the three men took a step forward as he spoke. "More than once. You don't seriously think she wouldn't have had a back up plan, should you foil her first?"

Jack's eyes widened a fraction. The Costello's. Now things began to click into place. Suzie had mentioned several times that she had a large number of brothers, all of whom were very protective or her and all of whom were involved in criminal organisations she wanted nothing to do with.

She claimed that she lost contact with them when she moved to Cardiff, but evidently this was another thing she'd been lying about.

"She told us everything and made us swear that should she not contact us for one whole year, we should come and destroy Torchwood three," the huge man continued. "Well that time has come. Now, would you like to watch her die first, or shall we take the others?"


	9. Chapter 9

Jack glanced at Owen and Tosh again. The pair looked like the information was a bit of a shock, and they still didn't have a plan. Jack sighed. He'd hope he wouldn't have had to resort to his scheme, but it didn't look like he had a choice.

"Now, men, let's be reasonable," Jack said, trying to distract their attention whilst his hand moved slowly to his wrist com. "Suzie killed herself the first time."

Jack continued to ramble, gently pressing a button, before moving his hands behind his back. He started signalling to the other two, only hoping that they were watching and understood. Then he pressed another button.

"Oh and I forgot to mention our pet didn't I?" Jack reached in his pocket slowly so as not to startle the men into doing anything. He bought out a bottle of protein sauce and squirted it all over the floor at the men's feet.

"What pet?" They asked, frowning as they watched Jack empty the bottle.

The three of them paled when they heard a squawk as Myfanwy was released from her cage in the Hub. Jack knew that they'd have to cover it up. After all, it was the middle of the day and there were bound to be hundreds of people who saw it, but Tosh could manage a cover story.

"Wanna give me Gwen?" Jack asked, as the Pteradon flew full circle before dive bombing the men, heading towards the smell of the protein sauce.

Whilst the men were distracted trying to move away from Myfanwy, Tosh and Owen dived forward, grabbed Gwen and bought her out of harms way. She had a gash along her collar bone, but nothing too serious. Owen pulled a clean piece of cloth out of his pocket and put pressure on the wound.

Jack meanwhile, took hold of the smallest man and whilst his companions ran for cover, he was at the mercy of the captain.

"Now you are going to take me to Ianto and if you have harmed one hair on his head, I will make you regret the day you heard the name Torchwood," Jack growled, pulling out his gun and holding it to the mans head.

Ianto had begun wandering about his cell, looking through the random objects contained within, just to give himself something to do. He didn't want to get bored in case the memories of what those men had done came back. He was sore and ached everywhere, but he kept moving round. Anything was better than remembering.

Bo had popped in and out whenever she could, and each time she looked worse. Ianto had no idea how long he'd been trapped there, but he guessed it couldn't be more than twenty four hours. He was basing this on his own bodily functions though and couldn't be more accurate.

He sighed as he sat down. If Tosh were here, she'd have been able to work out exactly how many hours they'd been trapped. She would've known where the weak point in the door was and they could've escaped. She would've been company if all else failed.

Ianto was slowly going insane. He didn't think he was ever going to see anyone other than Bo and the men who trapped him here. Maybe the others would just give up on him. It wasn't like he contributed much to the team. He was the tea-boy for god's sake, he was hardly irreplaceable.

He thought he heard someone coming down the corridor. He waited with baited breath the way he did each time, hoping it was Bo, or even better still, that it was Jack and Torchwood. When the door opened however to reveal a man stood in the doorway, a man Ianto didn't recognise, he shuddered and retreated further into the blanket he had.

"You ok?" Owen asked, as he Tosh and Gwen followed Jack and the man to wherever it was the Costello's had their base.

"I'm fine, Owen," Gwen said, rolling her eyes. She had a hand over her left collar bone, holding the makeshift dressing in place until they could get back to the Hub to stitch it up properly.

"I'm just trying to do my job," Owen replied defensively.

"I know, but honestly, I'm fine," Gwen smiled weakly. "It doesn't even hurt that much."

"Alright," he nodded. "Let me know if it does start to sting, I think I've got some paracetamol in my pocket somewhere."

"Ok," Gwen sped up slightly as Jack threatened to disappear from their view.

They came to a stop in front of a house and then gestured towards it.

"There you go," he said. "There's a whole series of underground cells. You're friend is in one of them."

"Right, you can lead us to him then," Jack said, shoving the man towards the door. He wasn't going to let the Costello brother get away that easily.

The man sighed, rolled his eyes and agreed to lead the way. Considering he was meant to be Suzie's very protective brother, and he was supposed to be avenging Suzie's death, given a gun pointing at his head and he soon changed his tune.

They travelled along many corridors through the underground system of the house, before they finally came to a halt in front of a door that was slightly ajar. The brother opened it further to reveal a man standing over a cowering bundle of blanket.

It took Jack a minute to recognise the bloody face of Ianto Jones. The fear in his eyes made Jack's heart ache.

"Step away from the Welshman," Jack said to the man who was getting ever closer to Ianto, holding what looked like a whip.

The man saw the gun and almost growled at the brother who had lead Torchwood to this place.

"You idiot!" He said. "You weren't supposed to bring them here under any circumstances!"

"I didn't want to do this in the first place," the Costello leading Jack moaned back.

The other opened his mouth to say something, but he was stopped short by a gun shot ringing out. He stared at Jack opened mouthed for a moment, before looking down and seeing blood pouring out of a wound in his stomach. He collapsed and Gwen gasped.

"Jack," Tosh warned, but Jack turned on the brother who'd lead them there and shot him too.

"No one hurts my friends and gets away with it," Jack growled, trying to calm his breathing down.

Ianto stood up then and ran into Jack's arms, sobbing. They'd finally found him. Ianto was finally safe. He was finally going home.


	10. Chapter 10

Owen knocked on Jack's office door and entered, holding a folder clutched in his hands. Jack was sat on the sofa with Ianto, who was wrapped in a blanket and still looked worse for wear.

"I finished patching up Gwen's neck wound, and the pregnant kid is fine," Owen said quietly, holding the folder out to Jack who took it off him.

"Bo," Ianto said not looking up. "Her name's Bo."

"Yeah, ok," Owen shrugged.

"Thanks, Owen," Jack looked at him gratefully.

"Do you want me to check him over?" Owen whispered, nodding at Ianto.

"No, I'll do it," Jack replied. "He's still in shock, it'll be better if I'm with him."

Owen nodded, heading towards the door. He paused in the doorway though and looked back.

"I've set Bo up in one of the cells, not locked, but I thought she could do with some rest," Owen said. "Shall me, Gwen and Tosh head home or do you need help with something else?"

"Nope, you go," Jack agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

Owen nodded again and left, heading down to Gwen and Tosh who were waiting by the cog wheel door.

Jack turned back to Ianto and sat down with him again. After they'd bought Ianto back to the Hub, once they'd rescued Bo and Jack had killed the rest of the gang, much to the disgust of the rest of the team, Ianto had been reluctant to talk about what had happened.

Judging by the wounds, Jack wasn't surprised. They had tortured Ianto pretty badly, and Jack knew it would take Ianto a long time to get over it. After all, it wasn't the first time. There were the cannibals out in the countryside and even further back from that was the time they'd found a group of aliens living in the sewers where the Weevils usually hung out.

Of course, that's not where it started. Ianto hadn't had the best of childhoods either, being abused by his Mum and Aunt. Jack knew all of this from reading Ianto's file and from snippets Ianto himself had revealed occasionally.

Jack reached out tentatively for Ianto's hand. Ianto didn't look at Jack, clearly trying to rid his mind of the memories, new and old.

"Ianto," Jack said quietly. "I need to see these wounds, get you cleaned up properly."

Ianto didn't answer and Jack sighed sadly.

"Come on," he said standing up and pulling Ianto with him. "You can take a shower and then I'll look you over."

Ianto followed like a lost puppy. Jack waited outside the bathroom at Ianto's request whilst he showered, washing off most of the blood and dirt. When Ianto came out, dressed in a pair of Jack's pyjama's that he hardly ever wore, he looked a lot better. The wounds and bruises were still prominent, but the wash had made Ianto look healthier if nothing else.

Jack lead them down to where Owen kept all his medical equipment and Jack set to work patching Ianto's more serious wounds up.

"There you go," Jack standing back and giving Ianto a satisfied look. "How are you feeling?"

"Alright," Ianto shrugged, and then hissed in clutching his shoulder. "Ok, not alright."

Jack nodded, helping Ianto to his feet.

"Let's get you into bed, you could do with some rest," Jack took Ianto through his office and down the manhole into his own room.

Ianto didn't have the energy to protest when Jack pushed him gently onto the bed, tucking the younger man in.

"I just have to go and check on Bo, ok?" Jack said softly.

"You'll come back though?" Ianto suddenly looked scared again, his fingers griping Jack's wrist tightly.

"Yeah," Jack nodded.

Ianto let go reluctantly and Jack was as fast as he could possibly be, checking Bo was fast asleep and fetching some food and water in case Ianto was hungry. The Welshman was still awake when Jack returned and he doubted whether Ianto would actually sleep that night.

He would almost certainly have nightmares if he did. Even Jack hadn't slept properly after the cannibal incident, not that Jack slept much anyway.

He sat on the end of the bed and Ianto sat up, edging closer, as though scared Jack might abandon him.

"You're supposed to be getting some sleep," Jack reminded him gently. Ianto gave him a withering look. "Yeah, alright, not gonna happen."

Jack stood up and wandered over to a bookcase he had in his room. He scoured the selves for a few minutes before pulling out a large blue book. He went back to the bed and Ianto again, kicking off his shoes and sitting cross legged.

"I want to show you something," Jack said opening the book and revealing it was a photo album. Ianto glanced at it wonderingly. "It's time you knew everything."

Jack knew that Ianto didn't want to relive what had happened to him just yet, so Jack decided he might as well be totally honest about his past.

Ianto already knew Jack couldn't die, and he knew that Jack was born in the future and lived in the past. What Jack hadn't explained was how he got there, and what happened on the way.

He told Ianto everything. All about his family and going off to war with his first best friend, who he'd had to watch tortured and killed, he showed Ianto pictures from the first and second world war, both of which he'd lived through, photographs of Estelle as a young girl, photo's of the Doctor and Rose, talking over memories he thought he'd forgotten.

Ianto understood most of it, and the confusing bits, like some of the travels on the TARDIS, he didn't understand fully, but he knew Jack would come back to anything he asked about later.

When Jack finished, with his arrival at Torchwood Three, he glanced at Ianto waiting for a reaction.

"Thank you," Ianto said, smiling slightly.

"You deserved to know," Jack shrugged. "It feels better to be able to tell someone all the things I've kept secret for so long."

"My past seems bearable compared to that," Ianto continued. "If I'd know-"

"Ianto," Jack cut him off. "You were abused by two people who were supposed to love you. You can't get much worse than that."

"I didn't know any different," Ianto replied. "Something's only intolerable if there was something better before."

"When did it start?" Jack asked tentatively as he felt Ianto's fingers slip between his own.

"I don't know," Ianto admitted. "It seems like it was always going on, but I suppose something must have started it off."

Ianto knew it was his turn to explain then, going through his miserable childhood right up to moving to London where he met Lisa, before returning and joining Torchwood Three when Torchwood one was destroyed. Ianto even revealed how he had felt about Jack, even right from the beginning his warm feelings that gradually grew stronger were there. Jack waited patiently for Ianto to finish before he said anything.

"Guess we're as sorry as each other," he said quietly. Ianto nodded and yawned despite his best efforts to suppress it. "_You _need to sleep."

Ianto gave Jack a worried look then.

"I won't go anywhere," Jack promised, climbing up the bed and gently pulling Ianto to lay back.

Once he stretched out, Jack lay beside him, wrapping an arm round the other mans waist.

"I promise I'll keep you safe," Jack whispered in Ianto's ear as he spooned against the younger man. He pulled the covers down over the two of them.

Ianto closed his eyes, hoping that he might be able to sleep without the nightmares. He was sorely mistaken. When he finally did fall asleep his was plagued by the memories of what had happened, and woke up again.

He turned to look at Jack and saw for once, the other man was asleep. Ianto glanced back across Jack's room, taking in the furniture and the tray of food and water Jack had bought down earlier.

On it was some bread, cheese, ham, cucumber, all the makings of a sandwich with a tub of butter and a knife set to it. The light from Jack's office was glinting off the knife. Ianto pondered for a moment. It wasn't a very sharp knife, but it looked sharp enough for what he needed it for.


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning, Jack woke early and found Ianto lying, tired looking, but still awake next to him.

"Did you sleep at all?" Jack asked gently.

"A bit," Ianto turned so he was facing Jack. "Not much though."

"It'll get better," Jack replied, one arm pulling Ianto closer, their legs entwining.

"This is all Torchwood is really isn't it?" Ianto said sighing. "Living in fear from day to day."

"Hey," Jack reached a hand up to Ianto's cheek. "It will get better, I promise."

He rested his forehead against Ianto's gently. The two of them looked at each other for a long moment, contemplating.

"The others will be here soon," Ianto said finally.

"Mm," Jack shifted slightly. "They can manage up there without us."

Jack looked unwilling to move.

"Can they manage without my coffee though?" Ianto asked smiling.

"Probably not," Jack agreed. "Do you want to get up then?"

Ianto kissed Jack quickly and then nodded, sitting up and disentangling himself from the other man.

He wandered across the room and gathered up the clothes that Jack had bought down the night before. As he dressed, Jack walked over to the table he'd left the tray on. The food was untouched, so Ianto obviously hadn't been hungry in the night. He went to pick up the tray and suddenly realised that the knife was missing. Frowning, he bent down to look under the table.

"Looking for this?" Ianto asked, holding out the knife to Jack. "I went to have a drink in the night and I knocked it off. I couldn't see in the dark, so it was still on the floor over there."

Ianto indicated vaguely somewhere the other side of the table. Jack might've bought the story, after all it was perfectly believable, but the glass of water on the tray was untouched, he was sure of it.

He took the knife and the tray back up to the kitchen, Ianto following. No one else had arrived at the Hub yet, meaning it was still quite early. Or the others were having a lie in. Either way Jack was happy to look after things alone.

"I'm going to go and check on Bo," Jack said after he'd set the tray down, turning to Ianto. "Do you want to come with me?"

Ianto had been creeping after Jack like a shadow and the Captain got the feeling that Ianto was still in shock about what had happened. In shock and unwilling to be left alone lest he was kidnapped again.

"Yeah," Ianto nodded.

Jack smiled slightly and took Ianto's hand, leading him down to the cells to where Bo was still resting. She was awake, but lying on her side in the bed cradling her bump.

"Alright?" Jack asked as he and Ianto paused in the doorway. Bo nodded looking anxious.

"What else is down here?" She whispered.

"Not much why?" Jack frowned slightly confused.

"I could hear moaning in the night," she replied.

"Oh," Jack grimaced. "Yeah, that'd be the Weevils."

"Weevils?" Bo gave him an astounded look.

"Aliens," Jack glanced at Ianto. "We're alien hunters."

"Right…" Bo pondered for a moment. "Any chance you can keep monsters away? My Dad's not exactly gonna be pleased when he finds out I'm missing."

Jack's felt his heart skip several beats. Ianto had told him that a fifteen year old girl had been held hostage, he hadn't mentioned that she was a Costello herself. Jack had killed every member of the family when he'd rescued Ianto.

"I promise you that your Dad will not find you," Jack said gently.

"That's what my Mum said," Bo replied.

"I always keep my promises," Jack squeezed Ianto's hand. "Don't I, Ianto?"

"Yeah," Ianto croaked.

"Do you want anything to eat or drink?" Jack asked after a few moments silence.

Bo shook her head, but Jack made a mental note to bring a tray down. There was no point denying her something she needed, now that she was free.

Later that morning when Owen, Gwen and Tosh had finally decided to come into work, Jack was sitting in his office doing some admin, Ianto wandering to the kitchen and back.

"Hey, Ianto," Gwen said, smiling slightly as Ianto popped out of the kitchen to se who had arrived.

"Would you like some coffee?" Ianto asked as Owen and Tosh appeared behind Gwen.

"Yeah, thanks, Ianto," Tosh said and the other two nodded.

As soon as Ianto had moved away back into the kitchen, Owen turned to Gwen and Tosh.

"We should go see Jack," he said quietly. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be treading on egg shells all day. We need to know where we stand."

Gwen and Tosh exchanged glances.

"Alright," Tosh agreed. "But try and be tactful, Owen. Remember Ianto's been through a lot and it's not the first time. Jack's not gonna be in the best of moods either."

"Yes, I know," Owen rolled his eyes and led the way to Jack's office to have a word.

In the kitchen Ianto was leaning against the side, waiting for the coffee machine to do its thing. He kept glancing towards the door and every time he did he kicked himself mentally. The Hub had seven different security systems. He should know, he had to spend hours trying to shut them down long enough to sneak Lisa in.

No one was going to just walk in and kidnap him again. He was careful to regulate his breathing. He'd done this since he was a child to stop unwanted panic attacks. Ianto bit his lip looking over to the other kitchen units. On top was a pile of cutlery, obviously from where Jack had tried to find the things for the tray the previous night.

There were several knives in the pile. Ianto glanced towards the door again. The other three had gone up to Jack's office. They wouldn't be down for at least ten minutes. Ianto edged towards the knives, reaching out to pick one up.


	12. Chapter 12

Ianto could hear them whispering as they returned from Jack's office twenty minutes later. He'd long since tidied away the cutlery strewn over the kitchen units and had just place the last of the mugs of coffee upon the tray he'd set out.

"Just be nice to him!" Gwen hissed as she, Tosh and Owen stood in the kitchen doorway.

Ianto turned and smiled at them, watching them carefully. They were looking at him with annoyingly sickening sympathetic faces. Apart from Owen who just looked normal, evidently deciding that no amount of torture would change the way he acted towards a person. Somehow Ianto found Owen the most appeasing person. He wanted everyone to act normally, to just pretend it had never happened.

"Any coffee going Ianto?" Owen asked, striding in front of the two women.

"Yeah," Ianto handed over a mug and Owen took it, mumbling his thanks and heading back out towards his workstation. Ok, so maybe he would've normally received a sarcastic comment by now, but Owen was defiantly not making an effort to remind Ianto of what he'd been through. Unlike the women.

"Are you alright, Ianto?" Tosh asked.

"Never better," Ianto nodded, though they both knew it was a lie. It was a stupid question to ask really; what was he supposed to say? _Well, I'm not really, I have just been held captive and tortured as well as being abused sexually and mentally. So no, I'm not in the best of shape._

Ianto decided that his unspoken answer was better off staying that way. Gwen was looking at him with her huge puppy-dog eyes now and it was all he could do to keep his cool. There was no point mourning after him now, he was safe and that's all that mattered. He didn't want to dwell on what had happened and he would've preferred it if the rest didn't either.

"Coffee?" He asked, walking towards them with the tray. "I've got some biscuits as well."

"Ianto you should be resting," Gwen said, taking the coffee off the tray.

"I'm fine," he said, careful not to sound anything but polite. He was going to find today very stressful he knew.

When Tosh and Gwen had finally let him go up to Jack's office with the last of the coffee and biscuits he was about ready to collapse.

"Alright Ianto?" Jack asked not looking up.

"If one more person asks me that I'm going to kill them," Ianto said quietly.

Jack looked up raising an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," he said taking the coffee off the tray that Ianto had set down.

"I know, I'm sorry," Ianto ran a hand through his hair. "But that's the only conversation I've had all morning. _Oh, Ianto, are you alright?_ It's driving me crazy!"

Jack took a gulp of coffee.

"Well would you rather we took a different approach?" Jack asked. "_Pull yourself together you no good sissy! What are you crying about, it was only a few cuts and bruises and a few sex deprived men!_ Something like that perhaps?"

Ianto smiled slightly.

"No, I just want things to be the way they were," he replied sighing. "But it's never going to be the same really is it? I suppose you had to tell that lot everything?"

Jack nodded.

"Yeah," he said apologetically. "I expressly forbade them to mention it unless you started the conversation, but I did tell them."

"S'alright," Ianto shrugged. "I suppose I would've told them sooner or later in conversation. Maybe not Owen though, I don't need to give him any more reason for him to think I'm just a pathetic little tea boy."

"Oh, yes, forgot to mention," Jack grinned. "I threatened to dock Owen's wages if he called anyone by anything but their proper name for the next week."

"I think Owen's going to starve to death pretty soon then," Ianto headed towards the door. "I'm going to hide in the kitchen. I may come out for the cups later when I've calmed down a bit."

"You say that like you're hyper, Ianto," Jack shook his head smiling slightly. "You can't get much more laid back."

Ianto smiled slightly. Jack was trying to cheer him up. He recognised the usual banter, but with much less innuendo. He was making a real effort. Still, he appreciated what they were doing, all of them, even if it was driving him mad.

Heading down towards the kitchen again, he passed Owen who mumbled something about going to check on Bo. Ianto wondered if he ought to go with Owen. Bo hadn't come up to find food or water and he was beginning to worry a little.

Then he decided against it. Owen wouldn't want the tea-boy cramping his style whilst he did his doctor-ly duties. So Ianto continued back to the kitchen and set about cleaning the already spotless units.

Jack sat back in his chair, wondering whether he ought to make Ianto rest. The Welshman would never agree to it of course, but he still felt it his responsibility as the Captain of this team to make sure they were all fit and healthy.

He was just about to stand up when his comm crackled into life. Picking it up he fitted it onto his ear.

"Go ahead," he said.

"It's Owen, we've got a situation," Owen's voice floated down the comm.

"What's wrong?" Jack sat up a little straighter.

"I need you down in the basement, now," Owen replied.

Jack sighed and got up, heading down towards the basement and the cells. Evidently a pregnant teenager was too much for Owen to handle on his own.

As Jack turned the corner and came into the holding cell Bo was staying in he got the shock of his life. The girl was sat shivering, a blanket round her shoulders, blood splattered onto the floor. Owen was holding a baby and looking particularly disgruntled.

"I need you to take him whilst I get her cleaned up," Owen handed the newborn over to Jack.

"How did we not hear her giving birth?" Jack asked.

"She's in shock, Jack, I doubt she knew what was happening," Owen replied, setting out his medical kit to check Bo over.

Jack headed up to the main part of the Hub, clutching the tiny boy in his arms. Owen had cut the umbilical cord and wrapped him in a spare blanket. Tosh and Gwen came rushing over as soon as they realised what Jack was carrying.

"Is it Bo's?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah," Jack nodded, glancing up as Ianto stuck his head out of the kitchen to see what all the commotion was about. "I need you and Tosh to go and help Owen."

Gwen nodded and she and Tosh moved past Jack, heading down into the basement. Ianto walked slowly towards Jack as the women disappeared.

"Boy or girl?" He asked curiously, staring at the tiny bundle.

"Boy," Jack smiled slightly, looking down at the baby. "Well, that's what Owen said, but he was been wrong before."

Ianto chuckled.

"You're never going to let him live that down are you?" He said.

"Nope," Jack shook his head. He paused for a moment then looked up at Ianto. "Know much about caring for babies?"

"A little, why?" Ianto frowned.

"I need someone to look after him, whilst I help deal with Bo," Jack said, holding out the baby boy to Ianto.

Ianto took him still looking confused.

"Surely it doesn't need all four of you to do the job?" He asked.

"There are some things I have to explain to Bo, and Owen will have to clean her up and Tosh and Gwen will need to write up reports," Jack lied quickly, turning and heading back to the others before Ianto could protest.

Of course, Ianto wasn't totally stupid. Indeed, someone was needed to look after the child until Bo was fit and healthy again, but it didn't have to be Ianto. Jack had only given the baby to him as a distraction. Ianto smiled to himself. Jack was too good for him sometimes.


	13. Chapter 13

"She's in shock!" Owen snapped for the fifth time. "Jack, will you get these two out of my way!"

Owen was trying his best to care for Bo who was suffering now, but Gwen and Tosh were getting in the way, doing their mother hen acts.

"Owen, they are members of this team just as much as you," Jack replied, looking over the information Gwen had printed out and bought down from her workstation.

"Yes, but I believe I'm the only doctor here," Owen growled, pulling out a small bottle of liquid, a syringe, and a needle. He pulled the packet off the syringe with his teeth and fitted the needle into it, drawing up some of the liquid from the bottle. "If you two want to help you can go and fetch my drip equipment from the post mortem area."

"Drip equipment?" Gwen raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, drip equipment," Owen said sarcastically. "No, unless you want this needle somewhere the sun doesn't shine, move it!"

Gwen rolled her eyes and went off to fetch Owen's things, Tosh following. Owen finished injecting Bo with the liquid and tossed down the needle on top of his first aid bag.

"Need any help?" Jack asked, as he finished flicking through the paperwork.

"I need to get her re-hydrated," Owen scowled at Jack as he covered Bo in a blanket.

"Would you prefer it if I left you to do your job?" Jack received a withering look from Owen and knew it was best to leave the doctor alone.

He passed Gwen and Tosh carrying the equipment back as he wandered up towards the main part of the Hub. Ianto was no where to be seen. He hadn't gone back to the kitchen, so Jack headed back up to his office.

At the door he paused. He could hear a low murmuring from inside. Jack pushed the door open a crack and listened quietly. He could just see Ianto sat on his sofa, holding the baby boy in his arms, feeding him with a bottle of which Jack had no idea of its origins.

"There we go," Ianto smiled slightly as the tiny child sucked on the bottle teat. "You're Mummy will be right as rain soon and then you can go back to her, and you can go and live your life and be safe and happy and…"

Jack watched as Ianto bit his lip and stopped talking for a moment.

"And have all the things I didn't, promise," Ianto whispered.

Jack opened the door then and Ianto looked up, shifting uncomfortably.

"There you are," Jack said as though he hadn't heard anything.

"Hey," Ianto glanced up from the baby from a moment.

"How's he doing?" Jack asked sitting next to Ianto.

"He's good," Ianto replied, leaning against Jack. "How's the Mum?"

"Not so good," Jack admitted. "Owen'll take care of her though."

"Yeah," Ianto nodded, looking down at the bundle in his arms again.

Jack pondered over the last few days for a moment before something caught his eye. Ianto had rolled up his sleeves at some point and Jack suddenly noticed the scratches up them.

"Ianto?" Jack frowned slightly at the other man.

"Mm?" Ianto glanced up at Jack.

"What's this?" Jack asked, stretching out one of Ianto's arms.

"Oh, it's probably from…" Ianto pulled his arm free. "Well you know."

"No, I don't," Jack said as Ianto stood up, moving away. "I was the one who cleaned you up; I do know fresh cuts when I see them."

"They're nothing Jack, ok?" Ianto perched himself on the desk, rocking and burping the baby.

"They're not nothing, Ianto," Jack stood in front of Ianto looking at him carefully. "When did you do that?"

"Jack," Ianto shook his head, heading for the door, but Jack grabbed him before he could leave.

"Ianto, when did you do them?" Jack asked.

Ianto sighed and shook Jack off.

"Last night and this morning," he said finally, wandering over and sitting back on the sofa.

"With what?" Jack sat beside him again.

"A pen," Ianto replied sarcastically. Jack raised his eyebrows at him. "A knife."

"Why?" Jack watched Ianto carefully for his answer.

"Because it made me feel better, ok?" Ianto didn't meet Jack's gaze.

"Oh, Ianto," Jack took one of Ianto's hands, threading his fingers between the other mans.

"I used to do it when I was little," Ianto continued quietly. "I wanted to prove that I was in control of the pain."

Jack rolled Ianto's sleeve up again to inspect the damage a bit closer. The red lines were so neat, it almost made Jack want to laugh. Even when he was hurting himself, Ianto made sure it was organised.

"I suppose you're going to tell me to stop?" Ianto sighed again. "Start hiding the knives."

"No," Jack said after a moment. "I'm not saying it's a good idea, but I'm not your mother."

Ianto glanced at Jack and he suddenly realised what that meant.

"Ok, bad choice of words," he said.

"It's alright, I'm used to it," Ianto replied. "You're really not going to stop me?"

"If you want scars all up your arms then that's your choice," Jack shrugged. "I take it the blades were clean?"

"Yes!" Ianto frowned at Jack. "I'll have you know I keep everything in that kitchen spotless!"

"Alright, I'm just checking," Jack stroked a finger over the scars. "I don't want you to get an infection."

There was a knock on the door and Ianto pulled his sleeve down as Tosh opened the door.

"Jack, Owen needs help," she said, glancing at Ianto and the baby. "Thing aren't looking good."

Jack stood up.

"I'll be right there," he said. Tosh left and headed back down towards the basement. Jack looked back at Ianto.

"Are you coming, or staying here?" Jack asked quietly.

Ianto stood up and followed Jack.

"I'll come," he said. "If things aren't going well, Bo ought to have time to see her child."

Jack nodded. As much as he hated the thought that they were already thinking the worst, he knew that Ianto was right. If Owen said things weren't going to well, the likelihood was that Bo was close to death.


	14. Chapter 14

Bo did not look good. She was pale, shivering and Own was rushing about growling in frustration which meant things where not going well.

Jack stood to one side, making sure not to get in Owen's way. That was not a good idea. Ianto moved forward though, he wanted to make sure Bo saw her child, just in case.

"Hey," Ianto said quietly.

"Hey," Bo managed to gasp back.

"Your baby boy's perfect in every way," Ianto said, unsure of what else he should say.

"Thanks," Bo shifted slightly. "Listen, when I die-"

"You're not gonna die damn it," Owen interrupted.

"If, I die," Bo continued unperturbed. "Will you and Jack keep him? I don't want him going to any old family. I want someone I can trust to bring him up and I only really know you."

Ianto looked startled for a moment.

"But it won't come to that," he replied.

"Ianto, I know I'm not gonna live through this," Bo said. "Promise me that you'll look after him?"

"Ok," Ianto promised.

"Move, Ianto!" Owen snapped, shoving Ianto out the way.

Jack stepped forward, steadying Ianto and frowning at Owen. As much as he appreciated how stressed Owen was, he sometimes got the feeling that he used these as an excuse to be nasty to the others.

"She wants us to look after him," Ianto said quietly, pulling Jack aside as Owen continued his work, Gwen and Tosh handing him things when needed.

"I heard," Jack said. "But it won't come to that."

Ianto looked at Jack doubtfully. There was something in Bo's voice that told him she not only knew that things were bad, but she also somehow knew she was going to die, not matter how hard Owen tried to keep her alive.

"She's lost too much blood Jack," Owen said, darting over suddenly. "Unless she gets a transfusion she's not gonna make it."

"What blood type is she?" Jack asked.

"She says A positive, but she's not completely sure," Owen replied, running a hand through his hair.

"Owen," Gwen called, but she was ignored.

"So give her O, we must have some stored somewhere," Jack suggested.

"Jack, we fight aliens," Owen gave him a despairing look. "I have neither the facilities to store blood, nor the equipment to perform a transfusion."

"Then get her to a hospital!" Jack growled. God Owen could be awkward sometimes.

"And tell them what exactly Jack?" Owen shook his head. "_Hi there, I've got a fifteen year old girl who's just given birth. Don't know who the father is cause it was one of her dad's prisoners. Said Dad is dead so no help there, any chance you could fix her up no questions asked?_ Somehow I can't see that working Jack. Besides, she wouldn't survive the journey."

"Owen," Gwen called again.

"What?" Owen snapped spinning round.

Gwen indicated Bo who looked worse than before, eyes closed, breathing coming in shallow gasps. Owen rushed over again, shouting at the others to leave whilst he did his job. He only wanted one person to stay to hand him things and Gwen looked hurt when he asked for that person to be Tosh.

Tosh on the other hand looked particularly pleased that she had been asked by name to stay. The other three, the baby still in Ianto's arms, headed back upstairs. Gwen offered to take the baby, but Ianto instantly seemed reluctant. Knowing that Ianto wouldn't want to cause a confrontation, Jack suggested Gwen find some more information out about the Costello's.

As soon as Gwen was out of earshot Jack turned to Ianto and looked at him enquiringly.

"What?" Ianto asked turning and heading up towards Jack's office.

"Protective, aren't you?" Jack said quietly, smiling to himself.

"I'm not," Ianto shot back.

"Hey, I'm only saying!" Jack tried not to sound hurt. "Sorry."

Ianto paused as he reached Jack's office door. He turned back to his partner sighing.

"No, it's my fault," Ianto glanced down at the child in his arms. "I just…"

Jack suddenly realised what was wrong. Ianto was scared that he wouldn't be able to keep his promise.

"You don't want him to go through your experiences," Ianto nodded mutely. Jack reached out and touched Ianto's arm lightly. "He won't."

"Not if we look after him, if…" Ianto didn't want to say it. But even as Jack went to disagree he saw Owen wandering up from the basement, covered in blood, looking pale, tired and defeated.

"We'll keep him safe," Jack ushered Ianto into his office before he caught sight of Owen. "I'm just going to fetch some blankets and things so we can set up a bed for him. We better start thinking of names as well."

"Bo ought to name him," Ianto said quickly. Jack nodded.

"Ok, I'll talk to her again when I fetch the bedding," he replied, shutting the door behind him and heading down to Owen.

"She's dead isn't she?" Jack said quietly as he reached their doctor.

"Yeah," Owen nodded. "I couldn't save her."

"You did all you could," Jack said gently. "Go and clean the basement up when you're ready."

Owen didn't say anything but Jack knew he'd got the message. Before he could head off to the archives to find something the baby could sleep in however, Owen grabbed his arm.

"She wrote this," he said. "She handed it to me just before…"

Jack took the folded up piece of paper and pocketed it, nodding. He wandered back up to his office after fetching everything he needed and glanced at Ianto, wondering how to tell him.

"I know," Ianto said without looking up.

Jack set all the stuff down.

"She left you this," Jack said handing over the note.

Ianto took it and looked over it.

"She wants us to call him Charlie," he said finally.


	15. Chapter 15

Jack told the team that they needn't clear up that day once Owen had taken the body down to the morgue, but everyone seemed in a state of denial. Owen hadn't lost anyone for a while, certainly not someone as young as Bo. In fact Jack was pretty sure that the only other time Owen had lost a fifteen year old was the first time he worked in a hospital.

Jack knew that Owen hadn't always found it easy to work in a hospital and after his first encounter with a patient and losing them; Jack knew Owen had reacted badly. But despite the fact Jack insisted the team could leave and worry about things the next day, they all stayed, finished the paperwork and then trudged home several hours later, worn out and defeated looking.

Jack returned to his office and headed down the hole into his backroom. Ianto had set up the cot and put baby Charlie to bed. Jack decided to pretend he didn't know that there was a knife stuffed underneath the pillow on his bed.

He sat next to Ianto, watching the cot and the sleeping infant. Jack wondered for a moment if he ought to leave Ianto alone for a bit, but he soon realised that Ianto wanted him to stay when he slipped his hand into Jack's.

"What happens now?" Ianto asked finally, glancing at Jack.

Jack considered for a few moments, thinking over the situation carefully.

"Well, Bo did say that we were the ones she wanted to look after her baby," Jack replied.

"But can we really offer Charlie the best life here?" Ianto looked doubtful. "It's not exactly an ideal place to bring up a child."

"No, that's true," Jack admitted. "But put yourself in his place. Would you rather be abandoned on the steps of a care home and never know who you're parents were, or grow up with two people who would try their best to make your life a happy one and be able to explain where you came from when you were old enough?"

Ianto thought about Jack's words for a few moments.

"Well, when you put it like that…" he paused. "Do you think we're ready to become parents?"

"Only one way to find out," Jack said smiling softly.

When Owen, Gwen and Tosh returned to the Hub the next day, they were astounded by the change in both Jack and Ianto. Admittedly neither of them had slept much and were running on caffeine highs, but that still didn't explain the sudden closeness and protectiveness of Jack.

Whenever any of the others attempted to ask Ianto where something was in the archives, they were glared at by Jack, who hovered annoyingly round the Welshman. Gwen and Tosh could both understand Jack's attitude to some extent and found it sweet. But the atmosphere in the Hub was irritating Owen to the point where he eventually snapped.

"Will you two do some work or piss off?" He shouted his hands in the air.

"Who exactly is the boss?" Jack replied, looking up from Ianto who was wandering around trying to get Charlie to sleep.

"I don't care who the fucking boss is!" Owen pulled at his hair. "How are we supposed to work with you playing happy families around us?"

"I don't remember moaning when you and Gwen were doing the same," Jack glared at Owen. "Sorry, Gwen."

Gwen tried not to look bothered at being dragged into the argument. Despite the fact that she knew everyone at Torchwood had been fully aware of the affair she and Owen had embarked on, she found it cringe worthy when anyone talked about it.

"That's got nothing to do with this," Owen growled, his teeth clenched. "We didn't push it everyone else faces!"

"Well you sorta did!" Jack snapped in reply. "You weren't exactly subtle!"

"Will both of you stop it!" Ianto surprised everyone with his sudden outburst. Jack and Owen looked at him, startled.

Ianto just shook his head, tutting to himself. He pulled Charlie into a more comfortable position and headed up to Jack's room intent on putting the baby to bed.

Gwen and Tosh gave Jack and Owen 'that was your fault' looks. The two men just huffed and returned to their workstations, fuming.

A blip appeared on Tosh's computer screen and she turned to it, frowning as she bought up the readings. Her frown slipped when she realised what it was.

"Guys, we've got a code five," she called out.

Jack paused halfway up the stairs, Owen turned from Tosh's left to look at her and Gwen rose from her chair slightly to look over.

"Code five?" She asked in confusion.

"Ever the newbie," Owen muttered rolling his eyes.

"Code five is grounded alien threat," Tosh explained, ignoring Owen. "It means a member of the public has reported something alien to the police and they've mailed it straight to us."

Jack nodded, thinking quickly.

"Right, Owen, gather up your medical kit in case there are any injuries, and pack extra retcon this time. Tosh, Gwen, prep the SUV, I'm just going to tell Ianto that we're off," Jack reeled off quickly, continuing up the stairs.

"That's right, confirm with the wife that you can leave," Owen muttered, gathering up his stuff. "Ow!"

Tosh whacked him over the head as she approached Gwen to try and collect whatever information they could in the few minutes that Jack was busy.

Jack wandered down to the backroom and found Ianto, watching Charlie sleep. He stood next to the other man for a moment looking down at what was now their son, contemplating.

"There's been a code five," Jack said after a minute.

"Oh right," Ianto looked up at Jack. "Where?"

"Not sure yet, Tosh and Gwen are prepping the SUV," Jack replied. "But I came down to let you know that we're gonna be out for a bit."

Ianto nodded. He knew what Jack was saying. You stay behind with the kid cause this is how it's gonna work. Ianto sighed quietly to himself.

"Do you want some coffee ready for when you get back?" He asked glancing back at Charlie who was laying spread eagled across the bottom of the cot, his ruffled brown hair sticking up at odd angles.

"Please," Jack gave Ianto's hand a quick squeeze. "It won't always be like this. I promise. I won't leave you behind every time."

Ianto looked at Jack again wanting to believe him. But he'd had too many promises broken to be able to trust them until they were fulfilled. _But Jack's not my mother_ Ianto had to remind himself as he watched the Captain return to his team.

Ianto glanced once more at Charlie and sighed again, wondering if Jack would notice if he went through the cutlery draw whilst the team was gone.


	16. Chapter 16

"Where are we heading Tosh?" Jack asked, as he climbed into the driver's seat of the SUV. Owen was sat in the front, checking his med kit and Tosh and Gwen were in the back, setting coordinates and checking CCTV on their computers.

"It's an IT facility down near the docks," Tosh replied, tapping away at her keyboard. "According to the CCTV Gwen called up it seems like a group of Weevil's gone rogue."

"Who made the call?" Jack started up the engine and the annoyingly cool female voice of the pom pilot started up.

"The police say she was a female by the name of Penelope Green," Gwen said, flicking through the files she'd bought up. "I found her on our database. She's twenty nine with a husband, four year old daughter and another on the way. Her sister works at the IT place too, though by her hysterical pleas the police think we're too late to save her."

Jack glanced in the rear view mirror, face grim.

"Well let's get there before anyone else is caught by the Weevils," he said calmly.

"I've got bottles of Weevil spray here," Owen said, handing them out.

Jack pocketed his as he turned the SUV left and headed down the narrow back road towards the docks. Cardiff bay was less than ten minutes walk from the Hub, but taking the SUV in case of Weevil hostages meant they had to take the roads which added at least ten minutes.

When they finally pulled up and climbed out, the building looked no different to any of the others lining the street. The story inside was a different matter however. As soon as they slipped in through the doors they knew everyone still in the building was hiding. The silence that hit them was so loud they had to whisper to each other to make sure they hadn't gone deaf.

"Right," Jack glanced about to make sure no Weevils were creeping up on them. "Owen, you and Tosh find any people you can and get them out. You've got the Weevil spray, but only make yourselves known if absolutely necessary. Gwen, you'll com with me and we'll try and locate the Weevils, maybe quarantine them in one half of the building until we've got everyone out and can safely remove them. If you get split up, or meet any kind of trouble, then radio me. Other then that, keep your comms on at all times and keep quiet and hidden. Got it?"

The other three nodded and Tosh and Owen took a door to the right, whilst Jack led Gwen towards a door on the left. Jack needed to find a computer that had access to the mainframe. Then he could open up a plan of the building and detect heat signals. It would be easy to distinguish between human and Weevil since Weevils had a body temperature of more then five degrees less than your average man.

Gwen followed him quietly as he crept down the corridor, checking rooms before he opened them. Considering it was an IT facility it was rather lacking in computer on this floor.

Jack opened the next door along and found what he was after. Checking the room was clear, he signalled to Gwen to follow and the pair of them sat down at one of the computers.

Jack thought it would be a simple job of open and set up, but it turned out he needed to hack as well. Growling quietly to himself in frustration he wished he'd bought Tosh with him instead of Gwen. He was just about to open a comm. line with her when he heard a voice from behind him.

"Trying to open up a map of the building?" Jack turned to see a man of about twenty with sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes.

He didn't look too good though. His shirt was ripped, his hands were covered with blood and he had several cuts. His knuckles were turning white because he was gripping a metal bar so tightly.

"They cut the phone lines, I didn't think anyone would come," he took a few steps forwards and did something to the computer, tapping in a pass code. "Want me to set up the heat scanner as well?"

Jack frowned slightly.

"How did you-?"

"I've seen you before," the man smiled weakly. "Torchwood right? This isn't the first time you've saved me from the Weevils. I was there a few weeks back when one was loose in the shopping centre down on the parade."

Jack nodded, remembering.

"Jack Harkness," he said, holding out a hand. The man shook it.

"Oliver Sandford," he said. "Though most people call me Ollie."

"Well, Ollie," Jack said turning to the computer. "Thanks for your help. You'll want to try and get out of the building now."

"No, you'll want me to stay," Ollie said shaking his head. "There's something wrong with these Weevils."

Tosh and Owen made their way carefully down the corridor, opening rooms and checking there were no Weevils present, before gently calling out to any hiding people. They'd found one or two and had helped them out of the building after Owen had checked them over.

Tosh had made up a quick lie about needing to check they'd got everyone out so that anyone they rescued would be waiting outside. It would make it easier to administer any retcon needed and to feed them some lie about what had happened.

As they continued down the corridor, Owen suddenly stopped, holding an arm out to keep Tosh back. At the bottom of the corridor was a body. Very carefully the pair of them made their way towards it.

As Owen bent down to examine them, he found that it wasn't entirely human. Patches of skin appeared to have dried and hardened to look much the same as Weevil skin. Frowning, Owen pulled out a scalpel and took a sample for further investigation. Looked like the Weevils were mutating, or worse, were becoming contagious.

"Owen," Tosh whispered, nudging him.

"Mmm?" He said not looking up as he opened the shirt to examine the hybrids chest.

There were claw marks right across it, but they seemed to be burned into the skin. Like some kind of mark defining them from others like themselves.

"Owen!" Tosh said more urgently.

"What?" Owen snapped looking up at Tosh.

But Tosh wasn't looking at him. She was staring at something further down the corridor. As Owen stood up and followed her gaze he saw what was troubling her. At the end of the corridor were three human Weevils, eyes red, looking enraged.

"Oh shit," Owen muttered.


	17. Chapter 17

Ianto was starting to get edgy. He hated being left on his own at the best of times but after what had just happened he felt even worse. Even as he washed blood off his hands he didn't feel any better.

He sat in Jack's room with Charlie, waiting for the team to return, wondering if Jack would ever truly understand what Ianto needed. It seemed like days ago that Jack had promised Ianto he wouldn't be a spare part anymore, that Jack would leave his past where it was in order to build a future with Ianto.

Course the minute Jack had rescued Ianto that had gone out the window. He knew the captain was trying this best to understand and help him, but Ianto just didn't know what he wanted. He didn't want to be left alone, but at the same time he didn't want to be constantly with people. He wanted Jack to hold him but the thought of someone touching him made him panic. He wanted Jack to forget his past, but when it came down to it, Ianto couldn't let go of his own.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He and Jack had a lot to talk about. Still, he could approach Jack about it when he came back. They could send the team home and have the Hub all to themselves.

Owen looked the Weevil/Human hybrids over very carefully and thought quickly. He reached out for Tosh's hand and took it, pulling her back slowly. The pair of them shuffled away down the corridors away from the Weevil/Humans.

The Weevil/Humans had other ideas however and broke into a run, heading straight for them.

"So much for that idea," Owen said, turning and beginning to run down the corridor, pulling Tosh with him. "Run!"

The pair ran and turned a corner, darting into a room. Tosh pulled open a cupboard checking it out for space. Maybe these Weevil/Humans would be less sensitive to smell compared to the normal Weevils.

"In here!" She hissed at Owen, pulling him in and shutting the door just as the Weevil/Humans burst into the room.

It was a tight fit, but in their current situation neither had time to think about it. Owen wrapped his arms round Tosh's waist, pulling her as far back away from the cupboard door as possible.

They could hear the Weevil/Humans searching the room for them. Tosh covered her mouth with one hand, sure that her heavy breathing was loud enough for them to hear. Owen was listening intently, waiting for their pursuers to give up and try elsewhere.

Sure enough a few minutes later they heard the scuffling of the Weevil/Humans leaving the room and heading down the corridor. Owen reached forward intending to open the cupboard door but Tosh pulled his arm away, shaking her head silently.

Barely audible above the loud thumping of his heart in his ears, Owen could hear the Weevil/Humans returning, no doubt waiting just outside the room in ambush. Very quietly, Owen turned his comm. on.

"Jack?" He whispered. "Are you there?"

"What's wrong with the Weevils?" Jack asked Ollie as he scoured the heat scanner he'd set up.

"They're mutating, or becoming infectious," Ollie shook his head, obviously still in shock. "People are being bitten and turning into Weevils."

Gwen stared wide eyed for a moment before reaching out a hand and laying it on top of one of Ollie's.

"Have you been bitten?" Jack asked, earning himself a glare from Gwen.

"No," Ollie shook his head again. "But I think I'd prefer to be dead than live with what I've done."

"What did you do?" Gwen said once she was sure Jack had seen her disapproving look.

"I had to kill three of them," Ollie looked up at her, his eyes dark. "They were three people I worked with everyday. Three people I used to go to the pub with. They were my friends-"

"You couldn't have saved them," Jack cut in. "They weren't the people you knew."

"Jack," Gwen began.

"No," Jack said stopping Gwen before she had time to start on at him. "Even if we could get a sample, there's no way of knowing if we could cure them. You did the right thing."

"The right thing would've been to help one of them up when they fell over," Ollie whispered. "Not to continue running like a coward."

Jack didn't say anything. He knew exactly what Ollie must be going through, but he knew that wouldn't have comforted Ollie if he'd said anything, so instead he turned his attention to the heat scanner.

"Lucky for us the one of the Weevil aspects they keep is the low body temperature," Jack said finally. "There's thirteen in the building altogether. Then there are four other humans, not counting us. So assuming that Tosh and Owen are two of those, we have two more people to rescue."

"Hang on…" Gwen frowned as she looked at the screen. "Is this us?"

She pointed to three human heat sensors on the screen.

"Yeah," Jack nodded.

"So there are five of those Weevil things waiting outside the doors for us?" She whispered.

Jack opened his mouth to answer when he heard Owen whispering over the comm. Ollie signalled for the two of them to follow him. Evidently he'd found somewhere to hide until he'd heard them.

"Owen, are you ok?" Jack asked quietly, as Ollie lead them inside an air vent. If the situation hadn't been so dangerous, Jack might've scoffed at the predictability of their hiding place.

"Yeah, we're fine," Owen whispered back. "But Tosh and I are stuck in a cupboard and there are three of those Weevil things waiting outside to grab us the minute we leave. Any chance of some help?"

"On our way," Jack said. "Just hold on and do not move."

As Ollie climbed up the square air vent and sat at the top, holing Gwen up Jack checked he had some Weevil spray ready. No doubt they would need it at some point. Jack sat the opposite side of the air vent drop to Ollie and Gwen.

"Ok, Ollie," he said. "You saw where the other human's heat signs were. Any chance you know how to get thee through the air vents?"

Ollie nodded, smiling weakly.

"Not the first time I've done this," he said.


	18. Chapter 18

They made their way through the air vents carefully, Ollie showing them the way. If the situation hadn't been quite so dire Jack would've laughed. Ollie had mentioned it wasn't the first time he'd crawled through air vents and it certainly wasn't Jack's either.

A long time ago a man in a leather jacket and a blonde haired girl had been the two people he was following, not the Welsh blonde and Gwen. Sighing slightly, Jack groaned as he felt his joints click. He was getting way too old for this kind of thing.

Finally Ollie paused and lowered himself down, checking the coast was clear before opening the vent. Jack and Gwen followed stepping out into a room full of filing cabinets.

"This is the room next to the one where your friends are hiding," Ollie whispered, nodding towards the door, where the outline of one of the Weevil/Humans was visible. "We'll need to be able to distract them in order to get your friends out."

"Right, ok," Jack thought for a moment. "I'll distract them and get all thirteen of those Weevil hybrids quarantined on one side of the building. Once everyone is out we'll work out how to get them all back to the Hub. Maybe we can figure out how to cure them. Either way we need to keep them off the streets. They appear to be a lot more volatile than normal Weevils."

Gwen and Ollie nodded as Jack explained the plan. Glancing at the pair of them, Jack hoped neither was planning on displaying any random heroics that had got them into trouble in the past.

"No matter what happens, get yourselves, Tosh, Owen and any other humans still in the building, out, got it?" Jack asked. "Do not come back for me."

Gwen opened her mouth to say something but was cut short by a stern look from Jack.

"Get the others and get out," Ollie said firmly.

Jack nodded and then headed towards the door, pulling out his Weevil spray in the process. He only hoped that the hybrids hadn't mutated in such a way that the spray was no longer effective.

"Hello Weevils!" Jack grinned, bursting out into the hallway. The hybrids turned to look at him and almost seemed to be raising their eyebrows at him. "Come on then! Follow me!"

He began running down the corridor away from the rooms containing Ollie, Gwen, Tosh and Owen, looking back to check the hybrids were following. Fortunately their intelligence didn't stretch to recognising a distraction and they charged after Jack unaware their previous pray was escaping.

Making sure they waited until all the hybrids were gone, Gwen and Ollie snuck out of their room and into the one next door heading over to cupboard where Tosh and Owen were hiding.

They opened it and smiled as they saw the relieved looks on the pair's faces. After Ollie had introduced himself again, the four of them headed for the door, intent on getting out.

Ianto sighed. What on Earth was taking the team so long? All they had to do was round up the code five, pile it into the back of the SUV and head back to the Hub. They'd been gone nearly three hours now.

Ianto paced back and forth in the back room where Jack slept. He glanced at Charlie occasionally, but the baby stayed asleep, apparently unaware of the anguish one of his guardians was going through.

Ianto was beginning to doubt looking after the child was the best idea. After all, he and Jack still had things to sort out, he needed to deal with his own past and present before he could think about their future.

Ianto considered going to fetch his comm. and trying to contact the team, just to see how much longer they thought they'd be so he knew when to stick the coffee machine on. But he decided against it. If Owen picked up then he'd only get a lecture about being needy.

Maybe he wasn't cut out for working at Torchwood anymore. One of the rules was that domestic issues were not to be bought into the Hub. Well, Ianto had broken that rule the first time he'd started working there and hid Lisa in the basement.

Ianto sat down on the bed and ran his hands through his hair. Just as he was about to start pacing again Charlie started snuffling and Ianto went to pick him up, grateful for the distraction.

Once Jack had quarantined the hybrids and got back outside, he handed RetCon pills to the team, with instructions to tell the people to take them for the shock. Anyone who'd been in the building would get home, fall asleep and wake up thinking that there had just been a fire alarm set of or something and though there was no immediate danger, they had been evacuated just to be safe. Once he'd set the team to work, he turned to Ollie who was staring at his pill glumly.

"This'll make me forget won't it?" He said sighing slightly.

"Sorry, it's just the way things work," Jack shrugged. "You're better off not remembering anyway."

"I don't want to forget though," Ollie glanced up at Jack. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking that my friends died of some accident when really I'm the one that killed them."

"You'd rather live with that knowledge?" Jack asked looking at him oddly. Ollie nodded.

Jack considered things for a moment. Ollie had helped them a lot. He'd kept a level head, hacked into the computer system, set up a heat scanner and Jack was pretty sure thing would've been a lot more serious if he hadn't been there. So maybe..?

"What about if you came to work for us?" Jack said finally. Ollie looked at him wide eyed.

"Really?" He asked not daring to believe his luck.

"We could use another member now…" Jack trailed off thinking of Ianto stuck back at the Hub. "And you certainly proved yourself today. You're well aware that we're not alone in the universe and you've taken it all in on your stride and I think we could use your abilities."

Ollie considered for a moment, turning the RetCon pill over and over in his hands. Jack glanced up and watched the rest of his team, knowing that working for Torchwood wasn't something to be taken lightly.

"Think about it carefully," he said. "It is quite a tiresome and exhausting job."

"Yes," Ollie said.

"Yeah?" Jack smiled slightly. "Welcome to Torchwood Ollie Sandford."

Ollie smiled back handing the RetCon pill to Jack before stuffing his hands in his pockets and watching the rest of the team.


	19. Chapter 19

Jack and the team finished the Retconning and piled back into the SUV. Gwen and Tosh seemed perfectly happy to take Ollie on board and agreed to show him the ropes once they were back at the Hub. Owen just started complaining about having 'another tea-boy' but judging by the way he was eyeing Ollie up, he didn't seem to mind too much.

When they arrived back there was no sign of Ianto so Jack went through to the back room to meet him. Ianto looked up from feeding Charlie and smiled weakly.

"Hello," Jack said, coming to sit beside him. "Sorry we took so long. You alright?"

"Yeah, no problems," Ianto shrugged. "Was a bit boring really."

They both knew it was lie. Mostly by the way Ianto said it, but partly because Jack could see the fresh cuts on Ianto's arms.

"We even managed to pick up a new member," Jack continued. Ianto looked up, looking less than pleased.

"Oh, right…" he paused. "I thought you liked us being a small select group?"

"I do," Jack said, wondering why Ianto was suddenly so defensive. "But I thought we could do with the help."

"Right," Ianto nodded, feeling like he was being pushed out of the club.

"Do you…" Jack watched Charlie feeding for a moment before finishing his question. "Do you want to come meet him?"

Ianto stared at Jack. Great, he picked a gorgeous Welsh blond no doubt and was attempting replace Ianto. Obviously his bad experiences meant Ianto was no longer fit for work. He might as well leave Torchwood entirely.

"Doesn't look like I have a choice," he muttered to himself as he stood up, burping Charlie as he walked.

Jack heard the comment and frowned as he watched Ianto go. He followed him up to the main part of the Hub where Ollie had their back to them, chatting avidly to Tosh and Gwen, Owen occasionally putting in a risqué comment, trying to find out whether Ollie was straight or not.

Jack rolled his eyes. _He_ was supposed to be the one who flirted with everyone. But he supposed someone would have to take his place now he'd got Ianto. As they headed towards them Jack cleared his throat and Ollie turned round. Ianto stared again. No, no way. This was not happening.

"Ollie?" He said weakly.

The others stared between the two of them.

"Hey, Ianto," Ollie smiled sheepishly.

"You two know each other?" Jack asked, sensing by the look the pair were sending each other, that they hadn't parted on the best of terms.

"Yeah, this is the man who ruined my life," Ianto snapped. "Well done for bringing him back."

Ianto stalked past them all and out through the door, heading up to the reception area and grabbing some things for Charlie before heading out into the cold air of the bay. No doubt if they'd had a manual door, he would've slammed it. Hard.

Ollie winced as he watched Ianto go and then turned back to the others, looking particularly glum.

"Sorry," he said. "If I'd known I'd never…"

Jack just shook his head and went after Ianto. The other three looked at Ollie curiously.

"I guess I have some explaining to do," he continued.

Jack didn't have to walk far. He found Ianto stood by the railing, fifty meters from the Hub, staring out into the bay. He'd pulled a blanket out of the bag he'd picked up and had wrapped Charlie up to keep him warm.

"Ianto," Jack began placing a hand on the other mans shoulder, but Ianto shook him off.

"Piss off Jack," he said through clenched teeth. "You've done enough damage."

"Ianto," Jack followed him as he stalked off. "Please, Ianto, I didn't know. I didn't know he knew you, I didn't know he'd hurt you, hell I wasn't even going to give him a job but Tosh and Owen owe him their lives."

Ianto slowed down, wavering. He was being a bit harsh. Jack wasn't to know what Ollie had done to him. He wasn't to know that Ollie was the last person he wanted to see after all the memories the past few weeks had dragged up. It felt like every bad experience was coming back to haunt Ianto.

"I'm sorry," Jack stood by his side. "I can't seem to do anything right."

Ianto glanced at him mournfully.

"It's not your fault," he said shivering.

"Come back to the Hub," Jack said, wrapping an arm round his waist. "I'll tell Ollie that he can't stay. It's fine."

"You might as well keep him," Ianto shrugged. "He'll be better than I am. At everything. You might as well have him as your boyfriend as well. He comes without the horrible past, with the issues, without the problems…"

Ianto had to bit down hard on his lip not to sob. He knew he was being pathetic, but for once he'd managed to get something right. He'd managed to find love with Jack and it seemed like every event since then had been conspiring against them, trying to split them up.

"Ianto," Jack pulled him into a hug, careful not to squash Charlie. "I know it probably doesn't feel like it, but he's not replacing you."

"I know, I'm just…" Ianto didn't know what he was. His emotions were everywhere, he needed to be able to talk to Jack alone, and he needed one night where he could sleep without the nightmares coming back.

"I know," Jack said and for once Ianto knew he really did understand. "I'll send the others home, ok? I'll make coffee-"

"Don't," Ianto chuckled, eyes shinning with tears. "Your coffee taste like Weevil socks."

"Ok," Jack laughed. "Hot chocolate then. I will fill you in on everything, and I mean everything. Not just what happened today. We'll talk for as long as it takes and we'll start again and then tomorrow we can deal with Ollie together, ok?"

Ianto felt a tear run down his face and smiled sadly.

"Ok," he said, pulling Charlie into a more comfortable position and slipping a free hand into Jack's.


	20. Chapter 20

Jack sent everyone home as soon as they returned to the Hub. Ianto hung about in the reception area as he waited for the team to leave. Jack had promised him he'd send them up via the lift.

As soon as he heard the stone slip back into place he headed down to the main part of the Hub and up through Jack's office to the back room. He put Charlie down in his cot and tucked him in.

Jack came through a few minutes later holding two mugs of hot chocolate. He handed one to Ianto and sat beside him on the bed, watching Charlie for a moment. He hadn't realised how hard it was going to be for him to tell Ianto everything. He hadn't thought about most of it for so long.

"I better start from the beginning," he sighed after a while.

"Is this a long story?" Ianto asked. "Only I wanted to watch 'Wife Swap'."

Jack rolled his eyes as Ianto giggled softly.

"Well, it is a long story 'cause in order for you to understand everything, I have to start right back from when I was eleven," Jack paused. "Which was a long time ago… or a long time yet to happen…?"

He told Ianto everything. How he was born in the 51st century, how he went to war with his best friend, and watched him die, how he turned to the time agency because it meant he could occasionally pop back and watch him and his friend playing as kids. He even mentioned to Ianto about his previous son, one he'd carried for friends.

He explained that when the time agency had taken two years worth of memories, which he still hadn't got back, he turned to being a con man, stealing a Chula ship and travelling through time and space conning time agents.

He smiled slightly as he reminisced the way he had met Rose Tyler and the Doctor, last of the Time Lords. He had to ignore the slightly hurt look on Ianto's face as he told of how much he'd loved the pair of them and how he'd been heartbroken when they'd left.

After that was down hill. Ianto knew most of Jack's back story from when he landed on Earth again in 1900 having to live out the past hundred odd years over again and avoiding meeting himself or anyone who knew him.

"And then I found I couldn't cope without a boost in the morning, what with being so old," Jack smiled slightly. "So I had to hire a gorgeous Welshman to help me."

He glanced over at Ianto who had, at some point during his story, stretched out, lying with his head on the pillow. Ianto smiled up at him.

"I think I know the rest from there," he said quietly.

"That you do," Jack agreed, stretching out beside Ianto. "So how do you know Ollie exactly?"

Ianto sighed. He knew it was going to come up in the conversation at some point. Might as well get it over with and get his version of events in before Ollie did.

"He was my best friend when I was in secondary school," Ianto began. "And… my first boyfriend."

Jack didn't say anything. He decided it would be better for Ianto to explain himself fully before he was interrupted. He might lose nerve else.

"He was great, I mean with the shit I was going through at the time I was glad to have someone who I could just be me with, I didn't have to think about things at home," Ianto sighed. "But then he started asking questions. Wanted to know why I never mentioned my family. Why we never went back to my house. When I told him everything he… he just turned his back on me. Told the whole school. Things just got worse and worse…"

Ianto trailed off sounding like he couldn't quite bring himself to relive that moment in his life again.

"I'm sure he was only trying to help," Jack replied quietly.

"That why he joined in the beatings is it?" Ianto shot back.

Jack decided not to argue with Ianto. The last thing he needed was to feel like his partner was taking the side of his ex best friend.

"Do you want me to fire him?" Jack asked after a few moments silence. Ianto shrugged.

"Past mistakes are hardly a fair reason to fire a competent and probably very loyal, brave and useful asset to the team," he said bitterly.

Jack loved how, despite his past and the past he shared with Ollie, Ianto was willing to let the other man stay unless he proved himself to be un-trustworthy.

"Adults can be cruel, but kids are worse," Ianto continued. "For all we know he might've changed. Just don't expect me to work closely with him."

"Course not," Jack said, wrapping an arm round Ianto's waist and moulding himself to the other mans back.

"We could do with getting Charlie some more stuff tomorrow," Ianto yawned. "He's only got the basics."

"Mm, as long as nothing happens before the team arrive I'll leave Owen in charge and we'll go shopping," Jack agreed, closing his eyes.

Ianto rested his arm across Jack's which was lying across his stomach. His arms were starting to sting and he had the feeling that one of the cuts he created might have reopened.

At least it gave him something else to think about as he tried to get to sleep. He didn't want his head full of Ollie right then. He didn't want to think about the fact that they'd loved each other, or what they'd done together, or the pacts they'd made, the secrets they'd told each other. He didn't want to remember how much it hurt to know that the one person he'd trusted, was the one who lead the attacks.

When he finally fell asleep his head was full of dreams, nightmares, most of them involving Ollie, some of them involving his mother, but in every one of them was one person Ianto knew he really could rely on. Someone who would die rather than break his trust. Jack was always present to pick up the pieces.

At one point he woke up and found himself lying face to face with Jack who was staring right back at him. Neither said anything and eventually they both closed their eyes and tried to get back to sleep. But Ianto felt Jack's fingers close round his own gently and knew that his partner was letting him know he was there for him.


	21. Chapter 21

Ollie hadn't told the team about his past with Ianto. He thought the other man ought to do it, since they were his friends and Ollie was just an outsider. The team had gathered in the middle of the Hub, Jack stood in front of them holding Charlie. Ianto was beside him but didn't meet anyone's gaze. This was something he could do without until he'd recovered from what he'd just been through. Or at least until the nightmares stopped.

"You might as well all be here since what I'm about to say applies to all of you," Jack began quietly, glancing at Ianto.

"Jack," Gwen cut in but Jack shot her a look that said now was not the time to stick her ore in.

"Everyone knows what we've been through this last week," Jack continued. "And we're not going to mention it again. This is our fresh start. Ollie, I'll find you somewhere to set up a desk and things."

Ollie nodded, slightly surprised that he was still expected to say. He guessed Jack would've been told by Ianto exactly what had happened between the pair of them and he thought he would be sent packing.

"Gwen, Tosh, Owen. I want a word with you three alone," Jack said. "Wait here Ollie and I'll get you sorted."

Ollie nodded again and as Jack led the other three a little way towards the base of the water tower, he glanced awkwardly at Ianto.

"I'm sorry," Ollie began, but Ianto brushed past him heading for the kitchen. Just because they had to work together didn't mean Ianto had to talk to Ollie. Not straight away at least.

"No more than I deserve," Ollie sighed.

Jack looked at Tosh, Gwen and Owen long and hard, before he finally spoke, shifting Charlie into a more comfortable position in his arms.

"I do not want you to approach either Ollie or Ianto on the matter of their past," Jack watched them carefully knowing how nosey the team could get at times. "If Ianto wants to explain he'll let you know in his own time. If I get wind that you've been speculating, I will RetCon the lot of you. Understand?"

Gwen and Tosh nodded obediently. Only Owen looked miffed, evidently a lover of gossip. But they all agreed and Jack knew that no matter how much they got on each other's nerves, they were loyal.

Jack set Ollie up near to Owen and Tosh, magic-ing up a desk from nowhere and giving Ollie the basic essentials. Computer, files about Torchwood that every new member received and a comm.

"Tosh and Owen can show you the ropes," Jack said, rocking Charlie as he began to sniffle. "I've gotta take care of this little guy."

Ollie nodded setting up his workstation as Tosh came to help and Owen shot Jack a dark glare. Surely it was tempting him to ask about his past if he had to work with Ollie so closely.

Jack wandered towards the kitchen. He knew Ianto had taken refuge in there and was worried what the other man was doing. But when he went in he found the coffee machine on and working and Ianto washing up.

"Ianto?" Jack said standing in the doorway.

Ianto turned and Jack froze as he caught sight of the knife. Ianto frowned at the look on Jack's face and followed his gaze towards the knife.

"I'm just washing up," he said holding up his hands so Jack could see there were no fresh scars. Well… not ones he'd done right that moment anyway.

"Sorry, I shouldn't assume," Jack sighed and wandered towards the other man.

"Well, you find a self harmer holding a knife you're ever likely to jump to conclusions," Ianto shrugged. "Especially since Ollie's here."

"Look, if you want me to boot him out, just say the word," Jack replied, leaning against the unit next to Ianto, watching the other man carefully.

"No, it's fine," Ianto finished the washing and dried his hands on a tea towel. "Ignore me. I'm just being stupid."

"You're not being stupid," Jack replied gently. "You were abused and now one of your abusers has come back. It's ever likely to affect you."

"I was fifteen when I finally told him!" Ianto sighed exasperatedly. "I should've been smart enough to realise what he'd do if I told him about the abuse. Or at least been strong enough to fight him and the others off."

"You are strong Ianto," Jack said, cupping the other man's cheek.

"Yeah, course," Ianto said in a tone that clearly said he didn't believe Jack.

"Ianto, you…" Jack paused. "You faced Cannibals, Faeries, you of all the team are the one I would trust with my life."

"Yeah, but you're biased," Ianto smiled slightly.

"Even before we got together, I'd have still picked you to save me," Jack pulled Ianto into a hug, careful not to squash Charlie who had fallen asleep. "I better put him down."

Ianto nodded and let Jack go. He gave Ianto one last fleeting smile as he wandered back out into the main part of the Hub. He went up to his office and through to the back room.

Ollie watched enviously as Jack walked straight past him. He'd caught a glimpse of what had been going on in the kitchen and felt a pang of jealousy. He knew he had no right and it made him feel bad, but Ianto had once been his best friend.

"Ianto will come round in time," Tosh said confidently, putting a hand on Ollie's arm. "You'll see."

_No he won't, _thought Ollie. _And you wouldn't think so either if you knew what I'd done._


	22. Chapter 22

Ollie was adept in every area. He filled out his paperwork as soon as it was put on his desk, he knew how to handle a gun like a pro and he was fast. They'd had three more reports of Weevils attacks, though fortunately these were the normal kind.

Within a week things had returned to somewhere near normal and Ianto had even been back out doing field work. Now that they had a new member, Jack made sure that it was Ollie who stayed behind when he thought Ianto would be more useful.

Ollie was on a one month trial and Jack was pleased by how well he coped with everything, including the prospect of paperwork. Even Owen was being sarcastic towards him, which Jack had learned long ago was how Owen expressed a likeness for someone.

"Jack, why are these on my desk?" Owen asked one day, holding up a couple of case files.

"Well let me see," Jack said in mock amazement. "Could it be because I want you to complete and archive them?"

"Why can't Nellie do it?" He scowled. Owen had switched between calling Ollie by his name and newbie and in the end settled for something halfway between the two.

Ianto was slightly jealous. Being called Nellie was a lot better than tea-boy, although since Ollie had started at Torchwood, Owen seemed to have forgotten that he used to torment Ianto and the Welshman was beginning to feel like he was fading into the background.

Even Jack seemed distant, which made Ianto's heart ache the most. The times he'd see the whole team laughing and joking and it would suddenly go dead when he went to join them. As if his experience had left him with a black mark and he wasn't allowed to enjoy himself anymore. It was times like that that drove Ianto to continue cutting his arms.

As the argument over case files unfolded Ianto went to make some more coffee. That was one thing the team still thanked him for at least. They all truly appreciated how much they needed Ianto when he reminded them he was still there with a good cuppa.

"Why doesn't Ianto do it?" Ianto froze and turned round as Ollie piped up. "He's the chief archivist after all."

The Hub seemed to turn deathly quiet. In fact Ianto could've sworn he could hear the quiet whistle of a sea breeze.

"Just a thought," Ollie mumbled, lowering his eyes to his own paperwork.

"Owen, just get on with it," Jack said with a warning look that said 'do not argue'.

Fortunately Owen didn't. Despite being the biggest twat in the world his loyalties lay first with Jack and Ianto before Ollie.

Jack followed Ianto as he made his way into the kitchen. He watched the Welshman for a while fully aware that he realised Jack was doing so. In the end Ianto turned round looking puzzled.

"What?" He asked.

"Just came to see if you were alright," Jack shrugged.

"No, if you'd just come to see how I was then you wouldn't have stood in the doorway watching me for so long," Ianto smiled slightly. "What's up?"

"Ollie is annoyingly perfect," Jack said finally. "And I'm not just saying that 'cause of what he's done."

Ianto frowned slightly.

"I wouldn't say he's perfect," he began.

"No, I don't mean like that," Jack cut in. "I mean, he's good at everything. Field work, paper work, gun work…"

"You sure he hasn't worked for someone like us before?" Ianto suggested.

"Not on his CV," Jack replied.

"Well it's not going to be," Ianto rolled his eyes. "For starters most organisations have memory procedures and those working undercover are hardly likely to tell you that they're under someone else's orders."

Jack and Ianto locked eyes for a moment and then both laughed nervously.

"Nah," Jack said. "He couldn't be…"

_It's not the first time I've done this._

"…working for someone else…"

Ianto had already turned around to finish the coffee and wasn't paying attention to what Jack was saying. Jack just shook his head. He was being paranoid, looking for things to be wrong because Ianto had had such a bad experience.

All the same, Jack made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Ollie. Ianto distributed the coffee out and didn't make eye contact with Ollie, but seemed a little less frosty towards the other man.

Ollie opened files on his computer and waited. Yup, there it was again. That little flash of blue in the corner. The little flash that told you someone was monitoring you. He sighed to himself. Evidently he was not trusted.

Admittedly there was good reason not to, but that wasn't the point really was it? Ollie quickly froze the tracker on a certain page which left him free to open new ones without them being scanned.

He was reading Ianto's personnel file, checking it for history, back ground story, anything that might relate to him. It seemed Jack had pieced most of it together before recruiting Ianto from Torchwood one, he had been working as an insider for many months before the Canary Wharf incident.

But there were some things supplied by Ianto himself. Family members, most of them dead, education, good school, better secondary school, top university, highest IQ in Cardiff, but there was something missing. There was no mention of the family problems, or better still, Ianto's mental illness.

"You didn't tell him the truth," Ollie whispered to himself in anger. "You lied again, Ianto, you bastard."


	23. Chapter 23

Jack looked up startled as a very disgruntled Welshman burst into his office and slammed his hands down on the Captain's desk looking him straight in the eye.

"Do you know why I left Ianto?" Ollie growled through clenched teeth.

"Ianto told me what happened if that's what you mean," Jack replied coldly, annoyed at the way Ollie had stormed all the way up here to tell him what he already knew.

"So you know he was abused?" Ollie asked.

"Yeah," Jack looked back at his computer, waiting for Ollie to take the hint and leave.

"Is that what he told you made me leave him?" Ollie's knuckles were turning white where he as gripping Jack's desk.

"Yes," Jack stood up, mimicking Ollie's position on his side of the desk, his face barely an inch from the other man's.

"Umm…" A cough from the doorway made them both look up to find Ianto stood there holding a mug of coffee which he had evidently been on the way to delivering to Jack.

"You didn't tell him the truth!" Ollie shouted, sounding not only angry, but hurt now. "Why do you always make me out to be the bad person?"

"Because you were Ollie!" Ianto said darkly, walking over to the desk and depositing the mug.

"You didn't tell him about your illness did you?" Ollie said, a hint of desperation in his voice now.

"What has that got to do with any of this?" Ianto bit back. If Ollie revealed his secret he would kill the other man.

"Because THAT was the reason I left you!" Ollie cried, running his hands through his hair.

Jack watched the pair of them, frowning. What on Earth were they on about?

"No, you left me Ollie because you were a stupid, back stabbing idiot who couldn't cope with someone not being as perfect as you!" Ianto snapped.

"I swear to you now Ianto, I did not leave you because of your Mum," Ollie lowered his voice to a calm level. "I left you because I was scared by what you told me."

"I didn't tell you anything!" Ianto growled in the same calm tone. "You forced it out of me!"

"Stop it both of you!" Jack cut in. There was only so far he could let this argument go and it had already attracted the attention of Tosh, Gwen and Owen who were stood in his office doorway watching.

Ollie and Ianto turned to look at Jack, both breathing heavily, hatred written across both their faces.

"You lot piss of back to work!" Jack shook his head as he waved a hand at the three team members watching from the doorway.

They reluctantly left, to continue what they'd been doing. Jack wandered round to the other side of his desk and pulled Ollie and Ianto into two chairs making them face each other.

"Now we're going to do this nicely, and calmly," Jack said firmly. "We're going to speak one at a time and we're not going to interrupt each other. Understood?"

Ianto and Ollie were till glaring at each other, but both finally mumbled 'understood'.

"Right, that's better," Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Ollie, start from the beginning. I've heard Ianto's side of the story, now tell me yours."

"It was about… three months after he turned fifteen," Ollie began. "I wanted to know why he hadn't had a proper party. Ok, so we didn't have many friends, but I thought we could do something together, just me and him. But he wouldn't tell me why he hadn't celebrated and that's when I began questioning home again. At first he just lied, said there was nothing wrong that he just had embarrassing parents, but I got it out of him finally. I was fifteen; I didn't know how to cope with the abuse. So I ignored it. But that wasn't all he told me. He also said that he'd been hearing voices in his head, talking to people who weren't there. I was worried! I told the school councillor everything because I wanted to help. I didn't know it would make things worse. It was supposed to be confidential, what I told the councillor, but someone must have got wind somehow and that kind of gossip doesn't stay secret long. Soon the whole school found out and Ianto blamed me for everything. I tried explaining on more than one occasion but we'd only end up fighting…"

Ollie smiled slightly.

"He broke my wrist once," he glanced at Jack. "I did what I did because I cared for him. I didn't mean to hurt him. I was worried that's all."

Jack nodded, thinking for a moment before glancing at Ianto.

"Is that all true?" He asked. Ianto nodded mutely. "Right…"

Jack pondered over everything deciding what to do next.

"Ollie, go back to work," he said finally. "I'll talk to you later.

"Yes, sir," Ollie headed for the door and back down to his workstation.

Jack glanced out of the window for a moment watching the others stand up to question him. But they realised Jack was watching and sat back down again. Jack himself sat in Ollie's now vacant chair and watched Ianto for a moment. The other man was looking down at his clasped hands.

"I'm sorry," Ianto said finally. "I should've told you but-"

"You thought I'd leave you," Jack reached out and placed a hand on Ianto's knee. "I won't ever leave you Ianto."

The Welshman glanced up.

"I was fifteen and had imaginary friends," He smiled blearily. "Everyone thought I was crazy. I was diagnosed with illness after illness, borderline personality disorder, depression, loads of them. But I wasn't crazy… I was just scared, upset and alone."

"I know," Jack said. "I… I wish you'd told me. But I don't blame you for keeping it to yourself."

"I think I should probably apologise to Ollie," Ianto looked up. "I made him seem a worse friend than he was. It was just… at the time…"

"You felt like the only person you could trust had betrayed you," Jack completed Ianto's sentence. "Believe me… I know what it feels like."

Ianto stood up and Jack followed suit, pulling the other man into his arms. They stood there for a moment before finally letting go.

"I love you, ok?" Jack said firmly. "I don't care what you or anyone else has done to you, I will always love you."

Ianto smiled slightly.

"I know," he said heading for the door. "I love you too."

Ianto made another fresh cup of coffee and stood by Ollie's desk as he put it down. The other man looked up at his long lost best friend.

"Sorry," Ianto whispered.

"I'm sorry too," Ollie replied. "I know I can't-"

"It doesn't matter," Ianto cut across quickly. He'd had to relive his past far too many times already that week. "Let's just start again yeah?"

"Yeah," Ollie nodded.


	24. Chapter 24

The tense atmosphere that had been hanging over the Hub for the past few days seemed to lift slightly once Ollie and Ianto had spoken to each other. Jack had taken to looking after Charlie so that Ianto could relax a bit more and it was a common sight for the team to find their Captain wandering around with the child. His tufty hair was starting to grow a bit more now and stuck up in odd places, no matter who tried to smooth it down.

Ianto didn't spend quite as much time hiding away as he had done before. Gradually the team had stopped worrying about him and moved on to the more pressing matter of keeping the Rift and anything that drifted through it under control. So it was only Jack that noticed the fresh cuts that appeared.

He knew it would take time for Ianto to be able to cope without the pain, but it still worried him. They talked about it, but Jack got the feeling that Ianto was always holding something back.

A week after Ollie and Ianto had made up the team got another call to deal with an annoyed Weevil.

"Right," Jack looked at them deciding who he would take. "Owen and Tosh you go and prep the SUV I'll be up in a minute."

He turned to the other three.

"Gwen, Ollie, I need an area assessment," he said. They nodded and went back to their workstations. Finally he faced Ianto. "Do you want to come?"

Ianto looked slightly taken aback and being asked. Usually Jack just decided who would come and who would stay.

"I want Gwen to come because she needs the practise," he continued. "But I want Ollie to miss this one out. Which means if you stay it'll just be the two of you."

"Someone needs to stay to look after Charlie anyway," Ianto shrugged.

"Ianto," Jack took a step forward. "Forget about all the reasons someone _should_ stay. Do you _want_ to come?"

Ianto considered, and then finally shook his head.

"Not yet," he said quietly. "Soon, but not yet."

Jack nodded.

"You'll be ok alone with Ollie?" He asked.

"Yeah."

Jack watched Ianto head back to the kitchen as Gwen and Ollie returned from their tasks. It was a few moments before they managed to snap Jack out of reverie.

"Sorry, what?" Jack asked looking from one to the other.

"Area assessment," Gwen replied waving the piece of paper in front of his face.

"Oh right, yeah, thanks," Jack took the paper. "Gwen, you're with me, Ollie I need you to stay here and monitor us on your computer."

"Will do boss," Ollie said, handing over his area assessment and heading back to his workstation.

The team disappeared and suddenly the Hub was very quiet. There weren't even the usual giggles or cries of Charlie who was fast asleep in the back room. Ollie sat back down at his workstation and opened the screen showing the progress of the SUV.

He nearly jumped out his skin when Ianto seemingly materialised from nowhere and put a cup of coffee down on his desk.

"Where are they heading?" Ianto asked conversationally.

"Down to the docks," Ollie said nodding his thanks for the drink.

"Should be a fairly quick job then," Ianto noted. "They know the docks quite well."

Ollie nodded again, unsure of what to say to that. He'd spoken to Ianto a few times over the past week, but there had always been someone else to carry on the conversation if it lulled. Now it was just the two of them, things seemed to struggle again.

Ianto too noticed the sudden dip and wandered away quickly to go and check on Charlie. Ollie glanced at the other mans retreating back before turning to the computer screen again.

Once again he almost jumped out his skin when his mobile suddenly went off. Glancing at the caller I.D. he stood up, answering it as he went.

"Hello?" Ollie headed towards the kitchen. "Now's not a good time…"

Ianto watched Charlie sleep with a smile on his face. Despite the way he'd come into the world and the problems his guardians had been having, Charlie seemed a content baby. He was full of life and had already started acting a lot like Jack. Which was worrying. One obsessive flirt was enough for Torchwood.

Ianto sighed. If Charlie was still asleep then he was better off hiding in the archives. Otherwise Ollie would realise that he was actually hiding. He headed back up to Jack's office and crossed to the door. He paused for a moment when he realised that Ollie had left his workstation.

Deciding the other man must've gone to the loo Ianto wandered down the stairs to the main Hub area, and across towards the kitchen. He paused again just outside when he heard a voice coming from within.

"No, I've only just got back into his good books!"

Ianto frowned to himself. Ollie was talking about him to someone. He doubted very much it was one of the team. Why would they phone up so secretively like this?

"Look, I'll get around to asking him as soon as!"

Ianto glanced round the door frame and saw Ollie stood at the sink with his back to him.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Jones; I'm working as fast as I can!"

Ianto paled and stepped into the kitchen then, heading towards the sink. Ollie jumped aside and hung up quickly. He could tell that Ianto must've heard some of his conversation by the way his fellow Welshman was practically throwing dirty mugs and things into the sink.

"I… Ianto…"

"You were talking to my mother," Ianto said turning to Ollie and looking at him angrily.

"I… it wasn't what you think," Ollie said carefully.

"Oh, you just happen to walk into my life after all this time and just _happen_ to have contact with my mother?" Ianto asked hotly.

Ollie looked down at his feet.

"She approached me after the first Weevil attack in the shopping parade," Ollie began. "She asked me to keep an eye on you, but working for Torchwood you're not the easiest person to watch. I didn't plan it, it just sort of happened and as soon as your Mum found out, she asked if I'd talk to you about seeing her."

"She wanted to know if I'd visit?" Ianto stared at him. "Is she completely mad?"

Ollie shrugged.

"Well you can tell her that if she wants to see me then she can turn back time and erase everything she did to me," Ianto said, voice quavering with anger. "And if you talk to her again I will not forgive you a second time."


	25. Chapter 25

Ianto didn't mention to Jack what he'd found out about Ollie. Just because his ex-best-friend was working for his mother didn't mean that he wasn't the same competent worker he was before.

After their conversation Ianto disappeared into the back room, feeding Charlie and wandering around with the child in his arms. He wasn't upset. He wasn't angry. He felt strangely calm. The same way he felt when he cut himself, only he hadn't created any new scars this time. He was determined to make things work. He was going to give Charlie the best life possible and he certainly wasn't going to make the same mistake his parents had.

Ianto jumped when he heard Jack's voice behind him. He hadn't realised how long he'd been down there.

"You alright?" Jack asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah," Ianto said, smiling the first proper smile he had in months. "Never been better."

Jack looked slightly bemused.

"Ok," he said taking a few steps forward. "You seem…"

"Happy?" Ianto suggested.

"Yeah," Jack nodded looking slightly guilty.

"Mm, well," Ianto cuddled Charlie closer. "Just felt it was time to snap out of it."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"You don't have to 'snap out of it'," Jack said. "What happened… any person would be expected to be down."

"Yeah, and I've been depressed before," Ianto smiled wryly. "I just didn't want to go down that road again."

"Fair enough," Jack grinned back, reaching over to take Charlie.

"Did you sort out the Weevil?" Ianto asked brushing himself down.

"Yeah, just a normal one, fortunately," Jack replied. "Locked up in the basement next to Janet."

"What are the others up to?" Ianto began tidying Charlie's things away.

"Just…" Jack paused frowning. "Damn, I didn't give them anything to do. They'll be lazing around."

"You're leadership skills are diminishing," Ianto laughed. "They'll think all their Christmases have come at once."

"Suppose they could do with some time off," Jack said finally, mulling it over.

"Yes, and then you can complain some more when you forget and no one turns up for work!"

"Hey! That happened once! And I was drunk when I said it, the hangover was terrible," Jack chuckled slightly.

A few minutes later Jack emerged from the backroom and ordered the rest of the team home. Tosh, Gwen and Owen were more than willing to go, but Ollie hung back. Jack watched them and then turned to the Welshman.

"Something wrong?" He asked, suspecting that Ollie might've said something to provoke Ianto's sudden change of heart.

"No… I…" Ollie trailed off. "Is Ianto ok?"

"Yes, he's fine," Jack replied. He might believe that Ollie was a perfectly reasonable person, but he wasn't going to keep him up to date with Ianto's mood. Ollie wasn't 'part-of-the-family' enough to let him know everything. "Why?"

"He just…" Ollie shrugged. "Just seemed a bit out of it."

"Oh he was probably just thinking," Jack pulled his hands out of his pockets and crossed his arms. "He tends to zone out when he's thinking hard."

Ollie nodded deciding now was the time to leave. He wandered towards the cog door, leaving the Hub and managed to get halfway across the Plass before his phone went off.

"Not again…" Ollie muttered to himself as he answered. "Hello?"

Ianto was coming out of Jack's office just as Ollie left. The Welshman was intending on making his partner a cup of coffee. When he caught sight of the look on Jack's face though, he paused.

"Ollie seemed under the impression that you were upset earlier," Jack said carefully. "He sounded like he might've been the cause of said upset."

"We talked," Ianto said firmly. "I just got a bit… we were talking about what happened… I wasn't upset with him, just upset in general."

Jack looked like he didn't believe a word that Ianto was saying. But neither did he say any more on the matter. Ianto bit hi lip. The silence made him want to say more which is exactly the reason Jack remained quiet.

"He's working for my mother," he blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Yes, he is," a voice came from the doorway.

Jack turned and found a woman in a green Mac stood by the cog door, Ollie by her side. Her hair was dark, almost black, but the bright blue eyes were the same as Ianto's. There was no question about it, this must be his mother.

"Hello Ifan," the woman said nodding at her son.

Jack glanced behind him at Ianto and saw his look change from one of surprise to one of dark anger.

"Get out," Ianto growled. "Get out now."

"I haven't seen you for nearly ten years," the woman took a few steps forward, Ollie following.

"And you wouldn't have seen me at all if it weren't for that bastard!" Ianto shouted, pointing at Ollie.

"I did it for you!" Ollie shouted back.

"Really? Well if this is your idea of a 'nice surprise' then don't bother in future!"

"Ifan I just want to talk," Ianto's mother stepped closer. She was almost within arms reach of Jack who was in between her and her son.

"That's what you said ever time," Ianto glared at his mother. "Every single time.'We need to talk', 'don't tell anyone about our secret game', 'you'll be taken away if anyone finds out'."

"I just want to explain why-"

"You can't explain," Ianto said firmly. "However you spin it, it's still abuse. You can't have loved me at all to be able to do that to me."

"But I did love-"

"No. You didn't," Ianto shoved past Jack so he was barely inches from his mother. "What you did was unforgivable. And the fact that it's taken you ten years, two hundred fifty miles and a job that makes me practically untraceable for you to come and find me proves that you never cared for me. You only cared for yourself. If you couldn't have me then no one could."

Ianto paused for breath, panting slightly.

"I just wanted to apologise," his mother reached a hand up to touch Ianto, but he flinched away before her fingers could even ghost over his skin.

"Go. Now. I do not want to see you again," Ianto said walking away. "And if you try, I will go to the police."

His mother's face dropped. But Ianto didn't see. He'd already turned away and headed back up towards Jack's office. Jack, who hadn't said anything or moved during the entire meeting, glanced at Ianto's mother.

"I think you'd better go," he said finally, pulling a pill out of his pocket and palming it to Ollie as he hissed at him. "You created this mess, make sure she takes this."

Ollie nodded glumly, and then frowned slightly as he found two pills in his hand.

"But she only needs one," he said quietly, watching Ianto's mother head towards the cog door. Jack raised his eyebrows as if to say 'do you really need to ask what the second one is for?'.

"Tell Ianto I'm sorry," Ollie said finally. "I only did it to try and get him some closure."

"That's not the only reason," Jack replied. "And it's the other reason that got you fired."

Ollie looked him straight in the eye and nodded.

"It was nice whilst it lasted," he sighed. "Thanks Jack. See you around."

"I might see you," Jack shook his head. "But you won't see me."

Gwen, Tosh and Owen wandered into work together, half an hour earlier than normal. There was no reason for their early arrival; it was just something that happened now. Things at the Hub had changed over the last month. Ianto was back to his old self, Ollie hadn't returned since they'd been given the afternoon off and Charlie was growing bigger and bigger.

In fact, bar the small infant who could often be heard giggling, the Hub was back to normality. Or at least… as normal as you could get in the secret HQ of an alien catching/fighting organisation.

The experience with the Costello's was not mentioned again. Reports were written, filed and archived but never did the words pass any of the member's lips. Jack refused to comment on Ollie's disappearance, so the team had to assume he had done something to warrant a RetCon and had been dismissed. Jack didn't mention the return of Ianto's mother to the team either, nor did he say anything to or ask Ianto about the meeting, for which the Welshman was thankful.

Charlie seemed completely oblivious to everything. The Hub, Myfanwy, the Weevils; nothing about Torchwood bothered him. Even when he moved out of the back room to Ianto's flat, that Jack had also taken up residence in, he didn't complain.

The thing that made Jack happiest though, was not the return to normality, it wasn't even the fact that Ianto had asked him to move in (though that did fair quite high on the euphoric scale) it was the fact that the scars on Ianto's arms were fading, and weren't being replaced by new ones. Ok, so they never completely disappeared and occasionally a small scratch would turn up, but Jack couldn't expect it to ever go entirely. It would always be part of Ianto, but the fact that he felt he was in a place were he didn't have to rely on it so heavily made Jack happy and in turn reflected off Ianto.

One morning Ianto bought a cup of coffee into their bedroom, wafting the smell towards Jack as he placed it down on the bedside table.

"Is that a gorgeous Welshman I smell?" He asked smiling, without opening his eyes.

"Actually, it's the gorgeous Welshman's coffee," Ianto replied, sliding back into bed beside his partner.

"Ahhh, near enough," Jack's grin widened. "What would I do without you?"

"Wither away and die I expect!" Ianto joked. "My coffee is the only thing that keeps you going!"

"Well," Jack pretended to consider. "Not the _only_ thing."

"Charmer," Ianto smiled slightly.

Jack leant over and kissed him.

"So what shall we do today?" He asked.

"Anything. I don't mind," Ianto shrugged. "As long as we don't have to think about the past… or the present. Just the future."

"Just the future," Jack agreed.


End file.
